I went out at 5:45 for the pre-dawn chorus. The temperature was 32 degrees F. From my place on Tupper Road I walked a few hundred yards over to Beech Hill Brook in the Lindsay-Parsons Preserve, hoping for some Hermit Thrushes. On my way I passed several Eastern Towhees that were exchanging "chewink" calls. When I got to the brink of the ravine, the falls below were making a lot of noise, and I couldn't hear any Hermits, but from downstream I caught the distant ringing song of a Louisiana Waterthrush, proclaiming in the traditional nesting territory. So I walked down that way to enjoy it up close. I was pretty happy to find it there, because the flood of 2015 had scoured the gorge severely, and I'm not sure that nesting even took place last year.
I crossed the brook and ascended to "the back stairs" (local nickname for steep, narrow Beech Hill Road). There I found a single Yellow-rumped Warbler singing in the hemlocks, but no Hermit Thrushes yet. At the second "landing" (think stairs again) I turned west, descended to the stream and climbed up the other side to reach the Danby/Newfield town line and cross back into my own property. In a grove of spruces there I finally heard a Hermit Thrush, and found a Ruby-crowned Kinglet too, probably the same one that showed up there yesterday. -Geo -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
