The Meadville KOA Campground, 25164 Route 27 in Meadville, is offering a free night of camping May 11 to all campers who stay at the campground as paying guests May 10 as part of KOA’s 10th anniversary KOA Care Camps Big Weekend.

Campers can to go www.KOA.com to see a list of other participating campgrounds and make reservations. 

Campers also may enter the Great KOA Giveaway for a chance to win a new $40,000 Keystone Cougar recreational vehicle, and a decade of free KOA camping. Weekly prizes from KOA, Cabela’s and Weber Grills are also available.

For all of its rich and well-known offerings to anglers and hunters, one of northwestern Pennsylvania’s other marvelous outdoors opportunities often is overlooked: Birdwatching.

Presque Isle State Park is an Audubon Important Bird Area where more than 320 bird species have been sighted. Spring migration is a wonder at the park, the final spit of land that colorful songbirds see before they head over Lake Erie and onto their summer grounds.

Erie Bluffs State Park, Erie National Wildlife Refuge, Pymatuning State Park, Allegheny National Forest, Oil Creek State Park, Cook Forest State Park and myriad other public places, let alone back yards, provide even more windows to the avian world.

And where there are birds, there are birders.

Many birdwatchers, experienced and novice alike, find their way to the Presque Isle Audubon Society. From time to time, NWPA Outdoors will profile a birder you might have seen out and about, neck craned to his or her binoculars, spotting scope or camera. You’ll learn a bit more about the birders, and hopefully a lot about the birds and ecology of the Erie region.

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A Meadville man shot the second-largest black bear recorded during Saturday’s opening day of the annual four-day Pennsylvania hunt.

Robert A. Pitts shot a a 620-pound male in Roulette, Potter County. It trailed only the 652-pound male that Timothy J. Moffett, of Barto, shot in Smithfield Township, Monroe County.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission said the top 10 bears processed at its check stations by Monday each had estimated live weights of 530 pounds or more.

Lycoming County, with 151 bears, had the top opening-day harvest. Warren County was fourth with 63 bears.

The Northwest Region first-day harvest, by county: Warren, 63; Clarion, 42; Forest, 30; Jefferson, 28; Venango, 26; Erie, 5; Butler, 4; and Crawford, 3.

Plenty of happy campers have made the Meadville KOA Campground one of the nation’s top KOA campgrounds.

The campground, at 25164 Route 27 in Meadville, was presented with the 2013 KOA President’s Award during the Kampgrounds of America’s annual International Convention in Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 17.

The award is based on high camper feedback and top scores in the KOA’s annual quality review. Hundreds of surveys about the Meadville KOA Campground and the 484 other KOA campgrounds in the United States and Canada are reviewed each year.

Matt Burns shot this trophy buck during archery season after it followed a doe out of a thicket in Meadville on what Burns called a picture-perfect morning Nov. 6.

Archery Nov 6th Meaville, PA

The first Antlers and Anglers Sportsman Showcase is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at Port Meadville Airport.

Hunting, archery, trapping and fishing will take center stage from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the airport’s two hangars.

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World-class archer Randy Oitker, outdoor photographer Tim Flanigan and award-winning Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year Gerald Putt have been added to the list of attractions for the Antlers & Anglers Sportsman Showcase June 19-20 at Port Meadville Airport.

Paul Hirosky, the former bass fishing pro from Guys Mills, will be among those making presentations at the showcase.

The Erie Times-News is among the sponsors of the first-ever event, initiated by the Meadville-Western Crawford County Chamber of Commerce.

Tickets will $5 daily and free for children under 12. Ticket sales are scheduled to start May 1 at the Meadville Chamber office, the Titusville Chamber of Commerce, Armstrong Cable, Northwest Savings Bank and the Pennsylvania Visitors Bureau,