Chirps and Cheeps

Trying again for a cuckoo, Doug Happ and I birded McCarty Hill State Forest down in Cattaraugus County. And once again, my new nemesis birds, the Yellow-billed and Black-billed Cuckoos eluded me!  The forest was surprisingly full of warblers though. We tallied 41 species with 10 of them being warblers!  Warblers included: Yellow, Common Yellowthroat, Ovenbird, American Redstart, Mourning, Blackburnian, Cerulean, Pine, Hooded, and Black-throated Blue.

I saw my FOY Blue-headed Vireo and we saw just shy of 10 Red-eyed Vireos. Their songs continually filled the air.

An interesting fact about the Blue-headed Vireo is that, since they arrive up here in the northeast before the deciduous trees have their leaves, they build their first nests in evergreen hemlocks. That tree is being decimated by an introduced Asian insect, the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid. This could end up being a big issue for the Blue-headed Vireo population.

We heard only 1 Wood Thrush and Veerys were totally absent. I've been hearing and seeing Veerys almost everywhere and I would have expected to have found at least one. Chickadees were surprisingly scarce too.

We found a few young birds, including 2 Baltimore Orioles and their dad, a cute little Field Sparrow, and I believe the photo of the Eastern Phoebe below is that of a young bird too. I think I see a gape at the sides of his beak.

We also kept our eyes and ears peeled for a Ruffed Grouse, but no luck with that bird either.

Other birds of interest we saw were: Swamp Sparrow, Wild Turkey, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Eastern Kingbird, Cedar Waxwing, Sharp-shinned Hawk, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.