Birding at a coalmine

This morning we went on a bird walk at a new site. One of our Tiadaghton Audubon Society members recently retired from the USGS where he did some work on an acid mine reclamation project off Route 287 near Antrim. It’s an area that is off limits to the public (or, at least, you can't normally drive in) but he has access because of work connections.

The area is quite interesting with several ponds designed to neutralize the acid from an old hard rock (underground) coal mine and the surrounding area which was once strip mined. Once the water passes through the settling ponds, it moves through three or four ponds that resemble a healthy marsh with reeds and cattails before it is finally allowed to return to the natural stream.

The surface is open grasslands with some stands of pine and deciduous trees. It put both Terry and I in mind of the area around South Park, Colorado and Gary thought of the foothills of the Rockies in Wyoming.

Anyway, six of us made the trip and we had a good walk with our guide. It’s good to see some of our tax dollars actually improving the quality of the water from some of these old mines. (Another project with the same goals but using different means is located just over the mountain from the Aerie.)

We got to see lots of birds, too. Most interesting were the grasshopper sparrows, savanna sparrows, a pair of black vultures (who were clearly a mated pair), many killdeer including a young fledgling, and a group of mallard chicks. (Mom and 9 youngin’s burst from the grass at our feet in a drainage stream barely 3-feet wide. Mom beat a hasty retreat up the middle of this little stream and 8 of the ducklings followed soon after. The ninth one was a little slow to get the message or had its feet tangled in the grass but it caught up.)

Here’s today’s report:


Location: Mine Reclamation-Anna/Lungquist
Observation date: 6/3/08
Notes: Clear morning with just a slight breeze. The reclamation area was most interesting and the roads to and from contained varied habitat. A pair of black vultures demonstrating mating behavior and a killdeer fledgling and mallard chicks (9 of 'em) enlivened the morning.
Number of species: 49

Canada Goose X
Mallard X
Wild Turkey X
Green Heron X
Black Vulture X
Turkey Vulture X
Killdeer X
Spotted Sandpiper X
Mourning Dove X
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker X
Hairy Woodpecker X
Northern Flicker X
Pileated Woodpecker X
Eastern Wood-Pewee X
Alder Flycatcher X
Eastern Phoebe X
Red-eyed Vireo X
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Common Raven X
Tree Swallow X
Barn Swallow X
Tufted Titmouse X
White-breasted Nuthatch X
Brown Creeper X
House Wren X
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher X
Veery X
Hermit Thrush X
Wood Thrush X
American Robin X
Brown Thrasher X
Cedar Waxwing X
Yellow Warbler X
Black-throated Green Warbler X
Black-and-white Warbler X
Worm-eating Warbler X
Ovenbird X
Common Yellowthroat X
Eastern Towhee X
Chipping Sparrow X
Savannah Sparrow X
Grasshopper Sparrow X
Song Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) X
Rose-breasted Grosbeak X
Indigo Bunting X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Baltimore Oriole X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)