Sunday, May 24, 2009

Birding Doodletown NY...

Today, I drove up to Doodletown to do some birding and met up with the Queens County Bird Club. I got to the location around 7:15 AM, which was good time, as I wanted to get an early start. Doodletown, used to be a town of Stony Point Rockland County, New York. It was purchased by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission during the 1960s and is now part of Bear Mountain State Park. It has become a popular destination for hikers, birdwatchers, botanists, and local historians. While Ian Resnick and Arie Gilbert the leaders of the walk waited for their club members and others, I began the trek up the hill with another birder. We quickly located a couple of key birds, a male Cerulean warbler, Hooded warbler, and a Blackburnian warbler. Wow! Was all I could think of…if this was the start what else might be in store. On Lemmon Road, we heard the Kentucky Warbler as soon as we started up the road and found other birders looking for the bird. No one really got to see the bird, but we heard it quite well. Reluctantly, we moved on; around the water tank/tower we had nice looks at a cooperative Blue-winged Warbler. On the way back down, Lemmon Road, some of us including myself had a brief glimpse of a Pileated Woodpecker, which is always a thrill to find. We visited some of the other trails and found one of the neatest find of the day in a Timber Rattlesnake. After a short lunch break, we headed back to our vehicles and drove first to Iona Island Marsh and then to Mine Road. At Iona we had looks at a Green Heron and another or the same Pileated Woodpecker. Over at Mine Road, we found another target bird in Golden Winged Warbler. Later on we picked up Cliff Swallow and Prairie Warbler around Katonah Reservoir. Around 4:30 PM, I called it a day and headed back to Queens NY. It was a good day of birding with several highlights. One of my most interesting observation was first listening and then in surprise watching a Cerulean Warbler sing a Hooded Warbler song. As if birding is not hard enough, that episode makes it harder to bird by ear. Total birds seen: 62 - One Timber Rattlesnake, 3 Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies and a Tiger Beetle.
  1. American Crow
  2. American Goldfinch
  3. American Redstart
  4. American Robin
  5. Baltimore Oriole
  6. Barn Swallow
  7. Black Vulture
  8. Black-and-white Warbler
  9. Blackburnian Warbler
  10. Black-capped Chickadee
  11. Blackpoll Warbler
  12. Black-throated Blue Warbler
  13. Black-throated Green Warbler
  14. Blue Jay
  15. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
  16. Blue-winged Warbler
  17. Brown-headed Cowbird
  18. Canada Warbler
  19. Cedar Waxwing
  20. Cerulean Warbler
  21. Chestnut-sided Warbler
  22. Chipping Sparrow
  23. Chimney Swift
  24. Cliff Swallow
  25. Common Yellowthroat
  26. Cooper's Hawk
  27. Eastern Phoebe
  28. Eastern Towhee
  29. Eastern Wood-Pewee
  30. Fish Crow
  31. Gray Catbird
  32. Great Crested Flycatcher
  33. Hooded Warbler
  34. Indigo Bunting
  35. Kentucky Warbler (Heard)
  36. Louisiana Waterthrush
  37. Magnolia Warbler
  38. Mallard
  39. Mourning Dove
  40. Northern Cardinal
  41. Northern Parula
  42. Northern Rough-necked Swallow
  43. Ovenbird
  44. Pileated Woodpecker
  45. Prairie Warbler
  46. Red-bellied Woodpecker
  47. Red-eyed Vireo
  48. Red-tailed Hawk
  49. Red-winged Blackbird
  50. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
  51. Scarlet Tanager
  52. Swamp Sparrow
  53. Tree Swallow
  54. Tufted Titmouse
  55. Turkey Vulture
  56. Warbling Vireo
  57. White-eyed Vireo
  58. Wood Thrush
  59. Worm Eating Warbler
  60. Yellow Warbler
  61. Yellow-billed Cuckoo
  62. Yellow-throated Vireo
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2 comments:

Dan Huber said...

Wow, great list for a day. Doodletown looks like a great place to go. and a rattler too, yikes

BIRDINGDUDE said...

Thank you! Doodletown is a great place. I may visit again soon; I would have loved to get a photograph of the Pileated and I might have if it were not for the traffic. The rattler was special...beautiful and dangerous.