Baldpate Mountain 6/15--Yellow-throated Vireo

Yippee! I drove an hour, walked up a "mountain," slip-sided down a muddy trail, and heard a bird screech "Three Eight!" So, add Yellow-throated Vireo to the year list. Sometimes, when I'm in the wrong frame of mind (and I am, now) all the effort to find a bird seems pretty silly.

Ovenbird

I went to Baldpate Mountain this morning because I've used up all the birds in the Pine Barrens, the shorebirds are mostly breeding near the Arctic Circle, and Baldpate was the nearest place I could think of where I might find birds I haven't seen this year. As it turned out, I only heard one new bird, but if one were looking for Ovenbirds, Wood Thrushes, or catbirds, that was the place to be.

Baldpate isn't a place I visit very often, so today was the first time I ever felt like I understood the trail system and how they hooked up to each other. What I really need is a guide to show me the places the cool birds are, because when I look at the lists of other birders there, I wonder where all these Chestnut-sided Warblers are, not to mention the Kentucky Warbler which seems to be known only to a select few.

In any case, I walked the Ridge Line trail for the most part and found enough birds to make the walking interesting.I would have preferred to have seen more birds instead of just hearing a lot of them. And I wish I could have gotten a better look at that empidonax species, or at least have it utter a call. Maybe then the whole endeavor wouldn't have seemed so silly.

36 species (+1 other taxa)

Mourning Dove  4

Chimney Swift  1

Turkey Vulture  12

Red-bellied Woodpecker  2    Heard

Northern Flicker  2    Heard

Empidonax sp.  1    Pale beak, couldn’t see eye ring if any. Overall gray

White-eyed Vireo  1    Heard

Yellow-throated Vireo  1    Heard

Red-eyed Vireo  3

Blue Jay  1

American Crow  2    Heard

Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1

Carolina Chickadee  3

Tufted Titmouse  3    Heard

White-breasted Nuthatch  2    Heard

Carolina Wren  3    Heard

Veery  4    Heard

Wood Thrush  25    Heard

American Robin  5

Gray Catbird  35

Cedar Waxwing  3    one at base of mountain, two near old farmhouse

House Finch  1    Fenced in field at top near buildings

American Goldfinch  3

Chipping Sparrow  1

Field Sparrow  2    Heard

Song Sparrow  1

Eastern Towhee  4

Orchard Oriole  1

Ovenbird  25    all through the woods

Black-and-white Warbler  1    Heard

Common Yellowthroat  6

Hooded Warbler  1    Heard

American Redstart  2    one male and one female on Ridge Trail

Yellow Warbler  1    Near pond

Northern Cardinal  4

Blue Grosbeak  2    fields

Indigo Bunting  4    Male and female in field below lodge

Indigo Bunting

Cedar Waxwing