{"id":6020,"date":"2016-06-26T17:38:30","date_gmt":"2016-06-26T21:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=6020"},"modified":"2016-06-26T17:38:30","modified_gmt":"2016-06-26T21:38:30","slug":"hiking-at-sterling-forest-state-park-62616","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=6020","title":{"rendered":"Hiking at Sterling Forest State Park, 6\/26\/16"},"content":{"rendered":"
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~Undoubtedly the bird of the day for me. My heart rate picked up when I heard the “Peeet-sah” call of this ACADIAN FLYCATCHER. Fortunately this bird actually made its way closer to the trail (why do they always seem to go away?), and I was able to get some photos. West Valley Trail at Sterling Forest SP, 6\/26\/16.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I woke up reasonably early and planned a fairly long hike to take at Sterling Forest State Park. I started at the trailhead for the Sterling Ridge Trail on Route 17A. The trail\u00a0was birdy with many expected birds; the only ‘surprise’ came when I got to a power cut and I could first hear and then see a couple of Prairie Warblers.<\/p>\n

After about two miles, I left the Sterling Ridge Trail (I would hook up with it again later), and I took the Bare Rock Trail for a short time before heading south on the West Valley Trail. I chose the West Valley Trail because it ran\u00a0through a swampy area that runs along Jennings Creek. I was hoping this change of habitat would add some species to my list and it certainly did – I got my best bird of the day there, a calling ACADIAN FLYCATCHER just a couple hundred yards from the swamp. At the swamp I added more birds: Eastern Phoebes, Common Grackles, Tree Swallows, Red-winged Blackbirds, and a beautiful family of Wood Ducks.<\/p>\n

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~Not long after I had the ACFL, I had this Eastern Wood-Pewee on the trail. I thought it would be interesting to have photos of both birds for comparison. I heard MANY Eastern Wood-Pewees on the hike, but this was the only one I saw. West Valley Trail at Sterling Forest SP, 6\/26\/16.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~A nice view of Sterling Lake from the Sterling Ridge Trail, 6\/26\/16.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just beyond the swamp, I jumped onto the Furnace Loop, which would eventually put me back onto the Sterling Ridge Trail. On the Furnace Loop I did well, getting good looks at several Hooded Warblers\u00a0and a\u00a0Worm-eating Warbler. Hooded Warblers remain my current photo-nemesis bird, and the Worm-eating made such a brief appearance that I didn’t have a chance. In the same area, I did manage to get a usable photo of a Black-and-white Warbler, so that was a decent consolation.<\/p>\n

Shortly after I\u00a0joined back up with the Sterling Ridge Trail, there was a fairly steep ascent which\u00a0I scrambled up. Thats when I realized that the temperatures were rising and I was running out of water.\u00a0AND that I was whooped. As I walked the portion of the Sterling Ridge Trail that I hadn’t previously been on,\u00a0I was still actively birding even though in the heat the birds were more quiet than they had been all morning. Once I got back to where I had left the trail several hours earlier, I was in full zombie-hiker mode; one foot in front of the other, just determined to get back to my car. I drank the last of my water when I had maybe a mile left, fortunately I had more in the car which I guzzled upon arrival.<\/p>\n

It was nice long hike (even if I was a little under prepared – bring more water, take rests!).\u00a0I estimate that I hike around 8 miles or so, and it was fairly productive as I had 38 species for the morning.<\/p>\n

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~Black-and-white Warbler on the Furnace Loop at Sterling Forest SP, 6\/26\/16.~\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~Prairie Warbler on the Sterling Ridge Trail at Sterling Forest State Park, 6\/26\/16.~\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I woke up reasonably early and planned a fairly long hike to take at Sterling Forest State Park. I started at the trailhead for the Sterling Ridge Trail on Route 17A. The trail\u00a0was birdy with many expected birds; the only ‘surprise’ came when I got to a power cut and I could first hear and … Continue reading “Hiking at Sterling Forest State Park, 6\/26\/16”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,6,18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-york-state","category-orangecounty","category-songbirds","category-sterlforest"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-1z6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6020"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6032,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6020\/revisions\/6032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}