Inspired by Dave Nutter's post about warblers along the Black Diamond Trail, Ken and I decided to walk a section of the Black Diamond trail that is accessible from a parking area above the Cayuga Nature Center. Right away we started seeing/hearing yellow warblers, catbirds, yellowthroats and song and field sparrows. But also a gorgeous Cape May warbler in a tree right at the parking area. On the Black Diamond trail we ran into our first large mixed warbler flock of this spring. Lots of yellow-rumps, but also Nashville, Black-throated Green, Northern Parula, Redstart, Chestnut-sided, Palm and Magnolia warblers busily foraging. So fun to see them flitting through the trees, though they were mostly backlit from our vantage point. We also heard our first Red-eyed Vireo of the year, heard a drumming Ruffed Grouse and saw a Veery. On our way back we had very close views of 2 Northern Parulas foraging for insects in the new leaves of a small maple! In all, we found 54 species on our 2.6 mile round-trip walk.
Good birding, Diane Morton -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
