A short hike through some of the lushest wild forest I have seen around here yielded many warblers, including a Hooded Warbler. From Kerhonkson take Upper Cherrytown Rd to Trails End Rd to the end where it turns into a jeep road. The first stretch is lined with mountain laurel in peak bloom and this is where the Hooded was. It looks like perfect habitat for them. Also many Canada Warblers, Black-throated Blues, Blackburnian, and many Veeries. I had hoped to find a southern approach to the mysterious Balsam Swamp, but didn't have a good topo map. I wasn't with my favorite hiking partner either so we didn't encounter an "inadvertent and prolonged bushwhack." In other words we didn't get lost :-) Will have to try again soon.
On the drive up we passed by this huge impressive estate on a lake that was heavily posted. Google took me to a newspaper article that said " the 5,405-acre parcel was purchased in 2000 by the Open Space Institute to protect more than six miles of the Vernooy Kill and preserve the accompanying wilderness from development. The majority of the land was later sold to the state for $5 million to be folded into Catskill Park." Fascinating land out there with lots of good birding potential. Birds observed along the jeep road: Sharp-shinned Hawk Chimney Swift Sapsucker Pileated Woodpecker Pewee Great Crested Flycatcher Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay Black-capped Chickadee White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Winter Wren Veery Swainson's Thrush Hermit Thrush Black-throated Blue Warbler Blackburnian Warbler Black-and-white Warbler Redstart Ovenbird Hooded Warbler Canada Warbler Towhee White-throated Sparrow Junco Happy Summer Birding, Frank Murphy Saugerties, NY [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
