Untitled

Allegany State Park, N.Y. & hooded warblers galore!

Neil:

I'm not sure how to post this so it gets sent to all members attached, but KW field Naturalists may be interested in this nice little hotspot!

Tired of fighting cottage country traffic, especially on a holiday weekend? We thought we'd try camping at Allegany State Park on the southern border of N.Y. state, bordering Pennsylvania. Instead of 3.5 hrs. of traffic jams, it was 3.5 hours of pleasant, ski mountain scenery. It was home away from home, with Amish buggies and draft horses plowing fields. Oddly enough, 95% of the park was Ontario folk, all having the same thoughts on the May 24. The park is set in the
mountains, with paved bike paths, and several extensive hiking trails in mostly oak deciduous forest. A museum offers views of a piebald deer (mostly white), turtle skeleton, huge fox squirrel, and Mr. freezies for those hot days. Several warblers were singing on this gorgeous weekend. The first to excite me was a hooded warbler: "worry, woory, worry, me too!" While hiking another trail, we grew to hear the familiar tune again... and again... and again. Ho hum...just another hooded warbler! It was a good place to learn warbler calls, as you often saw/heard a species more than once: blackburnian, black-throated green, redstart, etc. We had the pleasure of hearing a scarlet tanager, whose call has earned him the name: "dick bird". Chipmunks are
proliferous, as well as deer, thrushes, r-b grosbeaks and Eastern tiger swallowtails. The lovely pink gaywing flower provided lovely flower photo ops, as well as a garter snake that looked like a boa constrictor, perhaps having swallowed a baby chipmunk?sniff? Long Point the weekend before offered a warbler here, a warbler there; the second most common species being the palm warbler (6 or so?). Gnatcatcher, solitary vireo, black-throated blue, b&w warblers, and good
views behind the campground of a woodcock's display, landing on the road for us no less, were other birds in the line-up.

We're off to Awenda next weekend, another park with lots of oak forest, where we've seen numerous r-b grosbeaks, wood thrush, and a solitary smooth green snake of a vivid lime green color.

Happy camping & happy birding!

Heather & Kevin Bagg

Home Page

Webmaster: Neil E. Taylor