Berkshire Weekend

As is our tradition, we spent the long weekend at our friends' house, deep, deep in the woods of Berkshire County, off the grid, the electricity provided by solar panels.

Recently they put in a "driveway" which is really a 3/8 of a mile improvement of the muddy road and ATV path that they've been using for 30 years. However, we cling to the old ways (and save our shocks) by parking the car on a turnout on Cross Place Road (hard-packed dirt) and walking in through the woods, down a hill, over a stream, then up another hill to their house.

Along the way we find a few birds. Both mornings I got up early and took a long walk to see what I could find. Mostly I found chickadees. But where we park our car overlooks a swamp, and there we found a Pied-billed Grebe--it stayed around all 3 days we were there to our friend Sue's delight. Soon the swamp will freeze over, so the grebe is just passing through.

We also found Wild Turkeys along the roadsides as we drove around and they're always fun to see. We also spotted a beautiful Great Blue Heron regally flying along Muddy Pond which borders the railroad tracks where we like to walk and bird.

Today, before we left, we walked around the town park (there may be 500 people in the whole town by the way) and there we caught sight of a female Eastern Bluebird. So, while we didn't see a lot of birds, we did see some interesting ones. We're thinking of going up there in the dead of winter to check out their feeders for crossbills and red polls. I've never been there in the winter--did I mention they heat their house with one wood stove? It was pretty chilly in October--February ought to be a really interesting experience for a couple of New Yorkers used to an overheated apartment.

Berkshire County
Ashuwillticook Rail Trail; Coles Brook Farm; Cross Place Road; Frost Rd; Town Park, Washington ; Upper Valley Road; Upper Valley Road RR Tracks + incidental sightings along the Taconic Parkway 10/9-10/11

Canada Goose

Mallard

Wild Turkey

Pied-billed Grebe

Great Blue Heron

Turkey Vulture

Red-tailed Hawk

Rock Pigeon

Downy Woodpecker

Blue Jay

American Crow

Black-capped Chickadee

White-breasted Nuthatch

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Eastern Bluebird

Hermit Thrush

Cedar Waxwing

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Palm Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Savannah Sparrow

Song Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Northern Cardinal