On Wednesday, various groups are unveiling a 130-page birding and wildlife guide to eastern Pennsylvania. It's full of spectacular photos and useful information about great birding sites where there's interesting wildlife activity year-round -- places like the Quakertown Swamp and French Creek State Park and the Churchville Nature Center ... and lots, lots more.

The guide also includes an eloquent introduction by the incomparable natural history author, Scott Weidensaul. "Eastern Pennsylvania is a birding paradise," he writes. "From the gulls and waterfowl on lakes Nockamixon on Ontelaunee, to the songbird-haunted forests of the Pocono plateau and to the Kittatinny Ridge overlooks like Hawk Mountain and Bake Oven Know with their parade of migrant raptors -- there is always something with feathers to make a day outside worthwhile."

Not only that, but it's also a cradle of American bird study. Think John J. Audubon and William Bartram.

Among six press previews being held throughout the 13-county area covered in the book, are ones the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum on Philadelphia's southern border, the Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve just south of New Hope, the John J. Audubon Center at Mill Grove in Audubon.

After that, copies will be available free to the public, while supplies last.

Funded in part through a Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grant, the guide was created through a partnership of the Schuylkill River Heritage Area, Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, the National Parks Service and Lehigh Gap Nature Center.

A list of sites offering the guide can be viewed on SHRA’s Web site at www.schuylkillriver.org., or D&L’s Web site at www.delawareandlehigh.org. Guides can also be ordered from those web sites for $10, to cover shipping and handling.