Fahnestock State Park off Rte. 301 between Rte 9 and the Taconic offers a chance at breeding birds without too long a trip. Today doing some maintenance for NY/NJ Trail Conf. on the "blue trail" (parking by Canopus Lake) with the help of two friends and walking out the "red trail" ending further west on rte. 301 (730-1030 a.m.) we had 11 species of warbler; multiples of most and well into double digits of ovenbird and red start (on nest) others were chestnut sided, yellow, B+W, prairie, worm eating, Louisiana waterthrush, black throated blue and 3 singing cerulean one giving great looks of the necklace. Other birds included double digits of veery, towhee -- including one fledged likely within in a day (no tail) a foot off ground, eastern pewee, numerous wood thrush, great crested fly, and wax with both cuckoos, YT vireo, RB grosbeak, BG Gnatcatcher, Scarlett tanager, E. Phoebe, chimney swift, chipping and field sparrow. (There are ruffed grouse on the blue trail but didn't hear any today.) The beauty of Fahnestock is that there is still heavy understory blueberry bushes, laurel and much more (not a plant guy). There are many other areas to bird Fahnestock and other breeders include Blackburnian warbler and Acadian fly. And whippoorwill along 301 just get there before first light (I don't).
Just west of Rte 9 on 301 there is a vacant lot (an unbuilt development) with some great habitat where in 20 minutes earlier in the morning we had Canada, hooded and blue winged making the warbler species count for the day 14. Also had a turkey cross the road. As to the ethical inquiry. A bird maybe two feet off ground flew up out of a nest, after landing close by we could see it was F black throated blue warbler. The nest was easy to spot within a foot of the trail crowded w three eggs. Two were (unquestionably) cowbird eggs more than double the size of the third and re-confirmed after googling images. What do you do? L. Trachtenberg Ossining. Sent from my iPhone Sent from my iPhone -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
