Short walk at Colton Point

Terry and I dropped my Tundra off to have it's bed spray lined (Rhino) this morning over west of Wellsboro and instead of heading home right away, we continued west bound to Colton Point State Park and the west rim of the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. The place was completely empty when we got there. There were no cars at any of the parking areas and it stayed pretty much that way the entire 1.5 hours we walked around looking for birds.

Turns out that birds were pretty sparse, too. Even counting the Tree Swallows (down at the bridge over Pine Creek on the entrance road) and the Wild Turkey (along the side of the same road about a mile or two from Rt. 6) we were able to find only 14 species. Some, however were quite abundant. Turkey Vultures, for instance, were taking advantage of the sun striking this western slope and the fine breeze that blew up the slope to soar and soar and soar. I'm sure I under-counted them as they moved mback and forth up and down the gorge; sometimes high above the trees and sometimes way, way below the lip of the canyon.

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers were also abundant. They could be heard hammering on dead snags, tapping lightly on living wood, screaming at one another and generally having a grand old time in the woods.

No sign of any warblers yet, but that isn't surprising. The trees haven't yet burst their buds so there's no insects for the warblers to feed on. A week or so of weather like we had today (sunny and a high of 61 degrees) and the tree flowers will be present followed by the leaves. As it is, there's an increasing hint of red (maple) and green when you look at the forested slopes.

Anyway, here's the rest of a rather unremarkable list from today's walk:

Location: Colton Point
Observation date: 4/16/09
Notes: Cool (42-45 degrees) morning on the west rim of the Canyon. I'm sure I under-counted both the Turkey Vultures and the Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers as both species were all over the sky and the forest respectively. The Turkey and Tree Swallows were seen on the way up the road from Rt. 6.
Number of species: 14

Common Merganser (North American) 2
Wild Turkey 1
Turkey Vulture 9
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 6
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Phoebe 3
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 3
Common Raven 5
Tree Swallow 6
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 7
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 5

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