East Goshen Just Became a Bird Town. Hershey's Mill Has Been Watching Its Birds for Years.

The North Nature Trail at Hershey's Mill starts at the parking lot near the Cove and follows Ridley Creek to Chandler. A Great Blue Heron sometimes works the small pond on the left side of the path, hunting frogs and fish. About halfway along, a bench sits close enough to the water to hear the creek over the wind.

That stretch of creek is a good place to start reading East Goshen Township's latest announcement. On October 7, 2026, the township said it had been recognized as a Bird Town PA, and it credited its Conservancy Board and Environmental & Sustainability Advisory Council for the work. The township's announcement lists what earned it. Read from inside Hershey's Mill, nearly every line on that list has a match a short walk from the Cove, run by residents who started years before the title arrived.

What the township actually listed

The announcement is short. It names six efforts behind the recognition:

Maintaining native plants and a native pollinator garden at the Township Building Planting and maintaining trees and earning Tree City USA recognition for the 4th consecutive year Hosting community workshops and educational programs Offering educational bird walks in our park Maintaining and expanding our Bluebird box network Installing Wood Duck boxes with help from the West Chester East Environmental Club

It doesn't name a specific park or meadow, and it doesn't say which certification tier the township reached. Bird Town PA itself uses four tiers, Green, Bronze, Silver and Gold, with Green as the entry level. To get in, a municipality needs a three-person committee, a municipal resolution and a one-time $100 application fee.

One piece of background is often described wrong. Bird Town started as an Audubon Pennsylvania program, but Audubon Mid-Atlantic withdrew its support in July 2021. The working group behind it then rebuilt the program with other partners, and that version is what East Goshen joined.

The same list, inside the community

The township's committees and the Hershey's Mill Nature Group have no stated connection. Township bird walks have met at Applebrook Park, at the Chamber of Commerce lot off Hibberd Lane, not inside Hershey's Mill. The two efforts simply run in parallel, and set side by side they line up closely.

The Master Homeowners Association sanctioned the Nature Group in early 2020. Its stated mission is to preserve native wildlife, birds and their habitats through education and active participation. The nest-box program is the closest match to the township's bluebird boxes, and it operates at a real scale. A 2023 Nature Group update counted about 15 volunteers looking after 110 nest boxes across the campus, inspecting, repairing or replacing them as needed. Under the monitoring routine, volunteers clear the boxes early in the season and then check them weekly for eggs and hatchlings. The group publishes annual results, and the latest covers 2025.

The walks follow the same pattern. This September's two guided walks took the North and South Nature Trails and the Storage Lagoon. A resident led the first, and a Valley Forge Audubon volunteer led the second.

The part of the map the township doesn't have

One item has no match on the township's list. The Serpentine Barrens path starts at Chandler across from Troon and ends at a pair of benches with a view over the prairie. Serpentine barrens were once more common along the Pennsylvania and Maryland border, and they are now a global rarity. The specially adapted goldenrod, violets, asters and milkweed that grow there are miniature versions of their common relatives. Temple University botanists are studying the Hershey's Mill barrens, and the Nature Group removes invasive species and woody growth to keep them from filling in. The group has also consulted Stroud Water Research Center, Willistown Conservation Trust, DCNR and East Goshen Township on buffers along its ponds and streams.

The South Nature Trail covers a different kind of habitat. From the ramp at the south end of the Winter Storage Lagoon, it passes a wetland and pond built as a stormwater feature. It continues through a meadow in a pipeline right-of-way, where jewelweed, cardinal flower, milkweed and asters bloom in season. Then it enters a patch of woods with a bench facing dead trunks that woodpeckers work over. Song sparrows sing in that stretch, and red-winged blackbirds settle in the cattails along the upper wetland. The Nature Group keeps a 2025 Hershey's Mill bird checklist and asks residents to send sightings to HMNatureComm.

When the in-house calendar goes quiet

The Nature Group's public 2026 calendar shows no bird walks after September. Its annual meeting was held October 20, and the next dated item is a Winter Solstice Happy Hour on Sunday, December 20, from 3 to 5 p.m. The community site notes that its event listings are selective and tells residents to watch HMNews emails for additions.

Until something new appears there, the nearby calendar fills the gap. In date order:

1. Now through November: songbird banding at Rushton Woods. Willistown Conservation Trust runs public songbird banding during fall migration, September through November, weather permitting. The station is at the southeast corner of Goshen and Delchester Roads, with parking off Delchester Road. Its Saw-whet Owl banding is not open to the public.
2. Saturday, November 7: clearing out the garage first. East Goshen holds an e-waste collection from 9 a.m. to noon at East Goshen Park, 1661 Paoli Pike, and registration is recommended. The same park has a 55-acre footprint, a 0.9-mile walking trail, and a connected network of more than five miles of trails reaching Applebrook Park.
3. Thursdays, December 24 and 31: Exton Park walks. The West Chester Bird Club leads 1.5-mile walks at 8:30 a.m. that run about an hour and a half to two hours. The series continues January 7, 14, 21 and 28, 2027.
4. Sunday, December 27: the Western Chester County Christmas Bird Count. Volunteers count in assigned territories at any hour from midnight to midnight. The club's listing still shows the coordinator as TBD and asks interested birders to make contact early so sectors can be assigned.
5. February 12 to 15, 2027: the Great Backyard Bird Count. The count asks for at least 15 minutes of watching from anywhere, with results submitted through eBird or Merlin. A bench on the North Nature Trail qualifies.

Two larger sites add winter options any week. Stroud Preserve, at 454 North Creek Road in West Chester, is free and covers 571 acres. It is open dawn to dusk Thursday through Tuesday. Its deer-management season runs September 19 through January 24, so check the preserve's current visitor guidance before going. Natural Lands' account of a December 2024 count at Stroud calls Hermit Thrush a typical winter visitor. That count also logged Eastern Bluebird, White-throated Sparrow, Song Sparrow and Red-shouldered Hawk. Ridley Creek State Park, at 400 Gradyville Road in Newtown Square, covers more than 2,606 acres of woods and meadow along the same creek that runs past the Cove. It is open daily from sunrise to sunset.

Where a back yard or patio fits in

Bird Town PA also runs programs for individual properties, alongside the municipal ones. Its Bird-Friendly Habitat Program was developed with the Pennsylvania Audubon Council and Audubon chapters. It is aimed at yards, balconies and shared green spaces. The program's habitat page also points to Homegrown National Park, which maps native plantings for free. It lists National Wildlife Federation certification at $20 and a yard sign at $30 plus tax and shipping. At Hershey's Mill, where many plantings sit in village common areas, the Nature Group's Native Plant Garden is the local model. The garden was set up to inspire residents to plant the same species in their own gardens or village common areas.

At Anne Townes, we keep track of what's happening around Hershey's Mill and East Goshen, the trails and seasons as well as the market. If a question about the community comes up, whether it's about your own place or a friend's, please reach out. Contact Us.