We had an excellent Girls Day Out of Birding this morning. This was the first time for all of us to the Roy H. Park Preserve--Baldwin Tract. I must say that this preserve is stunningly beautiful. I loved the lush green wooded areas and the blue path to the creek. We will definitely be back!
The trip started out by finding a SNAPPING TURTLE sunning itself on the entrance to the parking lot. Since I have the most experience handling reptiles, I was designated as the Reptile Wrangler. I picked it up to move it out of harms way. It did try to free itself from my clutches by clawing at me with all four of its feet at once but I was not deterred. Before we even left the parking lot we heard two ALDER FLYCATCHERS. The highlight was two singing HOODED WARBLERS. We sat down on the ground for quite some time hoping one might pop out and make an appearance but this didn't happen. A gorgeous RED EFT (Eastern Newt) was crawling through the grass. We did have some excellent views of singing COMMON YELLOW THROATS, EASTERN TOWHEE & MAGNOLIA WARBLER's. For a long time at the beginning we were frustrated by lots of singing birds but all hidden from view. PRAIRIE WARBLERS, OVENBIRDS, & BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLERS were heard all around us but out of sight. We happened upon a very agitated pair of WOOD THRUSHES that had young hidden on the ground right by the trail. The pair both were carrying food and disappeared to the ground behind some greenery. My friend Maria was pumping her fist in the air with glee after spotting a gorgeous SCARLET TANAGER. We had only planned on staying for a couple hours but enjoyed the preserve so much we stayed nearly 4 hours. We saw about 30 hikers but no other birders. Here is the complete e-bird checklist I uploaded via the BirdLog app. (love that app!) Roy H. Park Preserve--Baldwin Tract, Tompkins, US-NY Jun 10, 2012 9:18 AM - 12:56 PM Protocol: Traveling 1.5 mile(s) Comments: <br />Submitted from BirdLog NA for iOS, version 1.4.4 29 species Mourning Dove 3 Belted Kingfisher 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Eastern Wood-Pewee 2 Alder Flycatcher 3 Blue Jay 3 American Crow 1 Black-capped Chickadee 10 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 House Wren 1 Wood Thrush 5 carrying food to young hidden on ground. American Robin 2 Gray Catbird 4 Cedar Waxwing 3 Ovenbird 8 Common Yellowthroat 8 very good looks; singing out in open in two spots Hooded Warbler 2 2 singing near each other on Blue Trail. We sat for 1/2 hour hoping for one to pop out but they remained hidden. Magnolia Warbler 3 Chestnut-sided Warbler 2 Prairie Warbler 6 Black-throated Green Warbler 5 Eastern Towhee 6 Chipping Sparrow 1 Field Sparrow 4 Song Sparrow 2 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 1 Scarlet Tanager 3 One seen only; two heard only; the one seen was on blue trail not to far from "lean to" Northern Cardinal 1 American Goldfinch 4 This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org) -- 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/ --
