High Point / Stokes Trip May 25 -27, 2010
Participants: Don Freiday-Leader,
CMBO Associate Naturalists-Karl & Judy Lukens, Chuck & Mary Jane Slugg,
Roger & Kathy Horn,
Steve & Karen Weis, Janet Crawford.
May 25th - Some of us gathered at the Myer Country Motel at 5:00pm for cocktail hour in the company of Chipping Sparrows, Baltimore Oriole, and 2 Bald Eagles. Then on to the Apple Valley Restaurant for a nice dinner.
May 26th - All met at the motel office at 5:00 am, and into town for coffee and donuts. First stop at 5:30 am was in the Delaware Water Gap NRA area for Golden-winged Warbler. We did find the Golden-wing which unfortunately seemed to be paired with a Brewster's type hybrid. Blue-winged Warbler was also in the area. From here we went to a small, new, Bank Swallow colony where we also found a Willow Flycatcher, and an unexpected Blue Grosbeak! Next stop was in HighPoint where we spent 3 hours watching Yellow-throated Vireo, Cerulean Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler and where Don conjured up a Barred Owl. We then went to Stokes and found Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, Brown Creeper, and more assorted warblers.By this time it was 12:45 and we went back to relax in the heat of the day, have an early dinner, and go out to the Wantage Grass Lands and the Lewisburg Marsh.
After dinner at Apple Valley Restaurant in Milford, we set out for Hickory Rd. in Wantage. At ~6:30 pm we drove up to a Grasshopper Sparrow sitting on a wire. A very cooperative bird along with several others. A Bobolink also perched on the wire for a short while. At 7:30 we were on the way to the next stop, Lewisburg Marsh, and on the way we saw a Kestrel and Killdeer. At the marsh we listened for the evening calls of marsh birds and did hear a Pied-billed Grebe and Common Moorhen calling. While walking along the road and marsh back to the cars, we heard a series of loud noises...bang, crack, bang, Ka-Boom. On a quiet, fairly still evening we deduced that a Beaver had just felled a very large tree across the other side of the marsh. He got our attention!! At dusk we returned to the motel with an early morning meeting time of 4:30 am looming. We were going to try for Grouse.
May 27th - Not quite all met at the specified time at the motel office (an alarm clock was involved here). No big deal, we were at the coffee shop at 4:50 and on the road to Stokes. Unfortunately the Ruffed Grouse did not cooperate and we missed it. We birded the area until 9:00 am getting 3 Barred Owls, several Pileated Woodpeckers calling and rapping, as well as numerous warblers and Least and Acadian Flycatchers. Also had Yellow-throated and Blue-headed Vireos, Scarlet Tanagers, and singing Veerys.
We moved on to more open areas at Ennis road and Van Ness road. At Van Ness we finally found a singing Alder Flycatcher. We then went back to Stokes and picked up more warblers including Worm Eating, and found a very photogenic Acadian Flycatcher. Many pixels were used on this bird. At 12:30 we returned to the Visitor's Center and set off on our own ways.
