A slightly belated report for a hike across the Slide Mt. wilderness area, in Ulster Co. starting late Wed., 25 May & through the night into all of Thursday, 26 May, 2016 -
I covered about 28 miles in all in as many hours, with the walk starting late in the day Wednesday, going into the late eve. with a 'rest' stop for several hours in legal-camping (below 3,500 ft.) & in a designated area, but then with moon-rise, a very very early start, with a head-lamp, to get to the northeast face of Slide Mt. at first light, around 4 a.m. - & there, near 4,000 ft. above sea-level, was the first of several Bicknell's Thrush, which I watched quietly, rather than fuss or even try to reach my camera (anyhow I have nice pix of Bicknell's from Slide, from years ago on one of my near-annual hikes there over the last 30+ years), as the bird called & also sang once, just 8 - 10 feet away. All the others I saw or heard were a lot more skulking, as is their typical nature & in the habitat they prefer to nest in, mostly dense spruce & fir thickets. It was fun to see White-throated Sparrow with nest material, to chance on Dark-eyed Juncos tending a nest (I kept quietly moving from all of these nesting activities and was strictly on blazed trail at all times up on the mountains), as well as even catching a tiny bit of migration movement on early Thursday, as dawn came with some birds moving in, as well as a very few that stopped off in unlikely (high) habitat, such as the singing Scarlet Tanager in spruce-fir, at 3,800 feet, or the E. Wood-Pewee at not all that much lower el. - these & a few others certainly about to move on. It also was very noticeable how many more of some summer breeders there were from just 24 hrs. before, when I made my descent to the lower more deciduous part of the walk. Warblers in the Catskills that I recorded were Pine, Louisiana Waterthrush, Yellow, Common Yellowthroat, Black-and-white, Chestnut- sided, Ovenbird, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, Magnolia, Blackpoll, and Myrtle/Yellow-rumped. There are a few others that I did not connect with in this visit. It was nice seeing a couple of Common Mergansers on the creek along the Woodland valley, Winter Wren in high-elevation sites & many other species in their summer homes. Of a total of at least 5 Bicknell's, 3 were on Slide Mt's. extensive high ridge, with 2 also at adjacent Cornell Mt. which I traversed to reach Slide Mt. - my route was from the Wittenberg-Cornell side, which is most emphatically NOT recommended or suggested for any who do not fancy a bit of scrambling in very rough rock-strewn trails & getting up & down a few near-sheer bits with rocks just giving some hand & toe holds, and a few small places with ladder-like "stairs" built. The much mellower way up that mtn. is via Frost Valley Rd. & that route also offers a nice selection of wild flowers, a variety of nesting birds at the various levels & habitats that are walked thru, & importantly, a vigorous but not exhausting walk for those ready for a real mountain hike. By far, an easiest way to view & hear Bicknell's is to take one of the roads in mountains that have them, such as Whiteface Mt. in NY, Mansfield in VT, or Washington in NH as well as Jefferson Notch in the same state. There are also some sites in Maine as in a few eastern Canadian provinces that can be closely approached by road. The other thrushes all were in place in respective habitat and lower elevations, but as has been brought up before, Swainson's Thrushes are definitely encroaching more & more into the Bicknell's habitat, at least it seems that way, rather than that there is a drastic change in the habitat at those elevations such that Swainson's are favored by such changes. But one wonders just what is at work in this regard; I believe this is occurring in a number of areas with Bicknell's, although it could be most apparent in many of the Catskill's bicknelli sites, as they may perhaps be one of the more vulnerable breeding- population sub-sets. The thrushes of lower are of course Wood, Veery, & Hermit... the last of which may be occasional in a higher elev. site, but most seem to stick to or near a somewhat different habitat assemblage. I would hope & assume more Bicknell's will be arriving, or have arrived, including females, this week. Good & respecting-nesting-birds observations, Tom Fiore Manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
