Chirps and Cheeps

Happy 4th of July!  I just got back from a very fun and therapeutic trip to the Adirondack Mountains with Willie D'Anna and Betsy Potter.  What a great time with wonderful friends and some great birds seen!

The first part of my adventure was awesome. I met Greg Lawrence up near Fort Drum and we birded the area and beyond, getting sights and sounds of wonderful birds like the Golden-winged Warbler and Henslow's Sparrow.  The Golden-winged Warblers were in family groups and were tending to the business of child care. These were my very best looks of a Golden-winged - better than I could have hoped for.  Thank you, thank you, Greg!

After that, I headed to the Saranac Lake area in the mountains to meet up with Willie and Betsy.  During the next few days, we did a lot of birding and we were able to see a couple of the Boreal species: Black-backed Woodpecker and Gray Jay - both were seen on some long hikes at Paul Smith's.  (Thank you for the foot massage afterwards, Betsy!)  The Boreal Chickadee and the Spruce Grouse, however, both eluded us.  Next time!

We did get plenty of sightings of the seldom seen Ruffed Grouse, though. A couple had chicks along with them, which is always a fun sighting. On one such sighting, we could hear the female softly clucking to her chicks in the underbrush just after she crossed over the road and took cover.  A newly fledged Lincoln's Sparrow gave me some great views while Betsy and Willie were off kayaking one day - and we all got some very nice views of a pair of nesting Canada Warblers and nesting Blue-headed Vireos.  Willie spotted an American Woodcock alongside the road from the car window as he was driving.  We had GREAT views of that bird - my best ever!  And we're all pretty sure we saw two different Northern Goshawks on the trip - but not quite confident enough to add them to eBird.

I really enjoyed a couple of other families with young: Least Flycatchers and Golden-crowned Kinglets. The parents of both groups were very busy catching insects for their fledglings and I managed a few photos of the fun encounters.

I love the different habitats in the Adirondacks; I love the clean air, the crystal clear lakes,  and I love the sound of the White-throated Sparrow singing its haunting song in the background of it all.  I need to go back.  Soon.