PHOTO PROVIDED Shown is a view from Rider Park in this photo by Sara Street, Rider Park manager.

There are numerous birds that are in the area for birders to watch and listen to. Anyone who uses the MerlinID bird app can attest to that. Robins, warblers, chickadees. The list goes on throughout Central Pennsylvania.

And on Friday, Oct. 18 from 10 a.m. to noon, birders can join Josh Rittenhouse, the Mid-Atlantic Audubon Society Forest Program Association, who will be at Rider Park to join the park for a hike to explore the early successional habitat for birds.

The program will tour a new American Woodcock habitat enhancement project and several sites where timber was cut in 2017. Anyone who wishes to join Rider Park manager Sara Street and Rittenhouse on the tour should register by either calling 570-321-1500 or emailing AmyP@FCFPartnership.org.

“I’m really excited about this,” Street noted of the upcoming program.

“We’re going to talk about that process (creating bird habitats). We’re going to look at this American Woodcock habitat enhance area that is up on Saddle Trail, which goes near Katy Jane Trail,” Street said. “We have an area that’s about five acres that was forested in 2017. So we have a lot of regeneration going on and we’re going to go up there and talk about habitat for birds and why they like it.”

The program is more than beneficial and educational as well, something that Street is excited about for people will be able to learn more.

“The vast majority of Pennsylvania forests are actually owned by private citizens and I would love for them to know how to manage their forests sustainably to benefit more than just people,” Street said. “At Rider Park, it’s technically a nature preserve. We are trying our hardest to create habitats that are healthy for animals and birds and amphibians. We would like to educate about this kind of work.”

Rittenhouse lends a lot of credibility as well to the program given his resume.

“This is what he studied in school. This is his expertise and he helps train the foresters who are certified through Mid Atlantic,” Street said. “He also helps write the landscape scale forest management plans as well.”

Street noted as well that in the area where regeneration has been going on that numerous tree sapplings are starting to grow, and it’s something birds love.

“Tree sapplings that are maybe 10 to 12 feet tall, they’re half an inch in diameter, but they’re completely covering this area,” Street said. “You can’t walk through it. It’s like a thicket, but birds absolutely love it.”