No Bears But Some More Frog Eggs, Coltsfoot Flowers And A Butterfly On A Spring Hike In The Weiser State Forest

It was a mild Spring morning last Sunday in Northeastern Pennsylvania , the kind I dream about throughout our long, dark and cold Winter. It was mostly sunny with temperatures in the low 50’s  when I awoke.  It was a perfect day to explore the woodlands and watch nature coming back to life. But where? There are so many places to hike near my home in Luzerne County, with so many  different habitats, each with an opportunity to observe some different aspect of nature’s rebirth.  I could look for  the emerging frogs and turtles, the first migratory birds and water fowl, or wildflowers.  So many choices. I decided it was too early to return to Frog Hollow and see the wildflowers there.  So I drove  to the Penn Forest Tract of the Weiser State Forest in Carbon County,  where I hoped to see a bear waking up from it’s Winter hibernation.

It was about a 45 minute drive from my home.  I was a little disappointed when I arrived and  saw another car in the parking lot. I feared the  person(s)  hiking the trail  would  scare any bears or other wildlife . 

I left my Jeep and began my hike on the Sawmill Trail. This wide trail is well maintained and is open to motor vehicles during hunting season. There were not many signs of Spring  in the still leafless mostly oak woodlands along the trail.

 It was not a quiet hike. The trail head is near the busy Pennsylvania Turnpike and  the  sounds of the passing traffic can be heard   at the beginning of  trail. As I began my hike, I met  see the person who’s car was parked in the lot. He was walking back from his hike with his two dogs. He said he didn’t see any bears or other wildlife. I was now hoping to maybe  see a bear or some other wildlife on my hike.

I did see some   of my favorite early Spring wildflowers along the trail.  However they weren’t blooming yet. There were dozens of unopened coltsfoot flowers. Looking at them I assumed  they hadn’t started to bloom yet and I wouldn’t see their pretty yellow flowers on this  hike. I would learn otherwise later on my hike.

I also saw found , what I believe is toothed plagiomnium moss growing on a tree. I had  never seen this moss before. I love finding new plants and insects and animal on my hike and try my best to identify them I am no expert and often make mistakes so please feel free to correct me if I misidentify something.

Near the moss I also found this snail shell which I haven’t been able to identify.

I walked about  a 1/2 mile when I  came to the Penn Forest trail. and followed it.  The woodlands were still mostly oak, but there were now some eastern hemlock, pitch pine,  sweet birch , black tupelo and black ash trees intermixed with the red and white oak trees .

I walked along the wide well maintained trail,

finding a lot of coltsfoot buds and some more moss, this is flat- branched tree club-moss which I  often find on my hike.

Many teaberries grew along the trail too.

I walked about another 1/2 mile when I came to  grove of red spruce trees growing along the trail.  It was nice to walk under these trees which are native to Pennsylvania but are  not common in our woodlands anymore.

The large pine cones of the spruce trees were strewn along the trail,

I had seen a lot of migratory warblers in this grove last Summer.  I hadn’t seen any birds yet  on my hike.I came to the Fire Break Trail,

and followed it through  a  pitch pine woodland. I love these trees which grew in the woodlands near my home. I spent many hours hiking under these trees as boy and young man.

The sun broke through the clouds and lit of the pine trees along the trail.

Here I saw a flock of pine warblers in the branches of the pine trees.

This short distance migrants returns to breed in the forest of Pennsylvania from their Winter homes in the southeastern United States.

As is often the case, different species of birds flock together for safety when feeding and there was also a flock of tufted titmice ,

and dark -eyed juncos, feeding in the pine trees.

I walked through the pitch pine woodlands for about another 1/2 mile,

and came to the Boundary Trail. This narrow trail took me  through some thick brush were I encountered a lot of ticks on my last  hike.

There were no ticks on this hike but I did see the first of  a few hermit  thrushes.   Some of these birds remain in Pennsylvania year round while others are short distance migrants.

After only about a 1/4 mile on the Boundary Trail I came to the Powerline Trail. I love this trail since it reminds of the the two power lines I hiked so often in my childhood.  My friends and I would look for blueberries (huckleberries as we called them) and mushrooms many a Summer day. And we would cookout and camp here many a  Summer night.

The only complaint I had  on this trail was I could hear the loud roar of the turnpike traffic again.

Despite the noise from the highway I have seen many species of migratory song birds on this trail but not  on this hike. The only birds I saw were a flock of black-capped chickadees,

fluttering in the shrubs along the trail. I often see these  birds throughout our Winters here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Like the power lines near my home, there were wetlands and  vernal pools along the trail.

And, in vernal pools in the Spring, one will  usually  find frog and other amphibian eggs, which I did. This pond had large masses of eggs which I have not been able to positively  identify. I think they are spotted salamanders.

There were also wetlands along the trail , some covered in common hairmoss,

and others with cranberries. Again  the same conditions on the power lines I hikes on for almost 50 years. I stopped hiking on he power lines near my home when, about 15 years ago, residential and industrial development destroyed much of  the woodlands. It was nice walking on this trail which brought back many wonderful memories of my Spring walks.

There were not many  buds on the trees along the power line,   the woodlands  still had  a very bleak and Winter like appearance.

But I did notice the first leaves of the sweet fern  shrubs so common  along the trail and   in the woodlands near my home. My dad called them “mushroom bushes” since we would always find  bolete  or “red top” mushrooms growing under he sweet ferns shrubs.   My dad taught us to pick these mushrooms from an early age. We dried them and made a mushroom soup for our traditional Polish Christmas Eve Holy Supper.

I walked about a mile on he Powerline Trail when I came  to the Reabold  Trail, which I followed back to the Penn Forest Trail.

About half way on the trail I saw another hermit thrush,

a flock of American robins,

a hairy woodpecker,

a northern flicker and ,

a pair of yellow bellied sapsuckers.

Northeastern  Pennsylvania is on the edge  of the breeding territory of   these migratory woodpeckers. These is earlier than I usually see them in the Spring.

After about a 1/2 mile I came back to the Penn Forest Trail.

I now saw a few folks hiking on the trail,

and another hermit thrush singing in thre tree  branches along the trail. Here is a link to a gallery on my blog website with some more photos of the birds I saw on my 5 mile hike in the  state forest.  Penn Forest Tract Weiser State Forest birds . April 5 2026.

I also saw dozens, if not hundreds,  of the coltsfoot flowers now in full bloom along the trail.

These early blooming  flowers are  welcome and pretty heralds of  Spring but they are not native to Pennsylvania.

And when flowers bloom insects and butterflies appear too. This beautiful,  tiny spring azure butterfly is native  to Pennsylvania.  It seldom remains still and it  took me 15 minues to  get this photo.

I finished my 5 mile hike, a little disappointed I didn’t see a bear, but I enjoyed the wildflowers, butterflies, birds and other signs of Spring and was glad I decided to  hike  in the Penn Forest Tract of the Weiser State Forest. I will return in May to look for the migratory birds. Here is a link to a gallery on my blog website with some more photos from  my 5 mile hike in the  state forest.  Penn Forest Tract Weiser State Forest. April 5 2026.

“The flowers bloom, the songbirds sing, and though it be sun or rain, I walk the mountaintops with spring.” — Earl Shaffer