4/12/10 Massawepie Mire (Southeastern St. Lawrence Co.); mostly cloudy, 32 degrees in a.m., mostly sunny 47 degrees midday.
David Buckley and I hiked 5.5 miles round trip at Massawepie Mire this morning and then hiked 2 miles round trip on the Mountaineer Trail near Massawepie Lake. Normally at this time of year, it takes a 4WD and lots of guts to drive into this area, but the dirt road was in great shape with no quagmires to sink in. The old railroad grade through the mire (now a dirt road) was in very good shape and I used summer hiking boots. But most of the wooden walkways on the Mountaineer Trail were under water and I wore winter boots for that trail. We counted 20 singing Palm Warblers on the way in with 14 counted before the first bridge crossing. This was a very conservative count, and there seemed to be even more singing birds on our way out when it sunny and a bit warmer (we only counted on the way in). I believe this is the earliest date I've found Palm Warblers at Massawepie, but I haven't checked my records yet. We checked the Mountaineer Trail for Pine Warblers, but did not hear any. So Palm was the only warbler species found today. Here are some of the 35 species found at Massawepie: Amer. Black Duck - 1 on the Massawepie Lake outlet Hooded Merganser - pair Common Merganser - several pairs Ruffed Grouse Wild Turkey Amer. Kestrel - male Merlin - male attacking an Eastern Phoebe Belted Kingfisher - 5 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - many Black-backed Woodpecker - 2; male and female just before the dirt road intersection near Silver Brook. I had wonderful views of the female foraging. As usual for this species, both birds were completely unfazed by our presence. Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Eastern Phoebe Gray Jay - 1 making unusual vocalizations near Silver Brook Common Raven Boreal Chickadee - at least 4 past the first bridge Red-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper - many heard singing Winter Wren - several singing Golden-crowned Kinglet - many singing Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1 singing near the first bridge (about 1.5 miles in) Hermit Thrush - one calling (I heard several singing at dawn this morning outside our Long Lake house & one calling yesterday near Sabattis Bog) Amer. Robin Palm Warbler - 20 heard singing in 2.75 miles (14 in the first 1.5 miles); wonderful views of the birds all along the dirt road Song Sparrow White-throated Sparrow - just one singing! Dark-eyed Junco Rusty Blackbird - 5; one pair vocalizing as they flew over us in the open bog, and another pair near Silver Brook; the 5th bird was perched in a tree at Mason Lake as I drove out. Purple Finch Amer. Goldfinch It was a great day at one of my favorite places! Joan Collins - Potsdam & Long Lake David Buckley - Piercefield and Virginia -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
