Birdwatching around Philly: where to go this fall

Philadelphia is a surprisingly good place to bird, with 414 wild bird species recorded in the area — 285 residents and 129 occasional visitors — and up to 250 local species passing through over the course of a year. Fall migration runs from mid-August to early November, and spring picks up from early April to May, so late October is right in the middle of the action. If you're looking for a spot, you don't even have to leave the city.

Cobbs Creek Park in West Philadelphia is a great starting point. The 851-acre green space is home to the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Center, and eBird users frequently report red-shouldered hawks and palm warblers there. A pair of red-shouldered hawks started nesting on the center's grounds this spring — the first known nest of the species in Philadelphia — in a large American sycamore over a bridge crossing Cobbs Creek. The best view is from the center's parking lot, looking over the fence to the large tree on the far right with patches of white bark, where the nest sits at the base of a big branch. Staff will point it out to you through a telescope if you stop in first.

For raptors, Fort Washington State Park in Montgomery County is the place to be. It's a local hawk hotspot with an observation boardwalk, and the official 'Watch' runs from September 1 through October 31, with volunteers counting raptors every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. as 16 species migrate along the East Coast. Green Lane Park, another 3,000 acres around the Green Lane Reservoir, is one of the few regional spots for the lesser black-backed gull and has had 288 species documented. Peace Valley Park in Bucks County is also worth a visit for bald eagles, double-crested cormorants and ospreys, and it runs bird walks on Saturday mornings through October and November.

Closer to center city, the Philadelphia Navy Yard along the Delaware River turns up canvasbacks and greater scaups, Schuylkill River Park is a stopover for migratory gulls, and the University of Pennsylvania's biopond is home to the Quackers Bird Club, where ovenbirds and yellow-bellied sapsuckers are common. Even smaller urban spaces like Logan Square, Coxe Park and Matthias Baldwin Park pull in migratory flocks of kinglets and American woodcocks. The John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum is widely considered one of the best places in Philadelphia for migratory birds, while Wissahickon Valley Park covers nearly 2,000 acres with five species of woodpeckers. Bartram's Garden, Boathouse Row and the various preserves in Chester and Montgomery counties round out the local options.

If you're willing to drive, New Jersey has the big names. Cape May National Wildlife Refuge is the state's birding capital, spanning five miles along the Delaware Bay, and Cape May Point State Park is a key stopover for red knots resting on horseshoe crab eggs. The Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Brigantine is accessible by car and holds one of New Jersey's largest breeding populations of the federally threatened piping plover. In Delaware, Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge preserves a huge stretch of tidal salt marsh, and White Clay Creek State Park is one of the state's most visited, with the rare cerulean warbler among its visitors.

Whether you're chasing a specific species or just want to see what's passing through, the region is well-covered. The Audubon Bird Guide app and Cornell's BirdNET are the standard tools for identifying what you find, and groups like the Bucks County Birders, Philly Queer Birders and the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club keep the community going year-round.