Grasslands and Shrublands
On Tuesday May 19th I went to the Flat Rock State Forest near Altona New York. I arrived to the area just after 7:30 am. The weather was very nice today staring off in the low 50's before warming up to the mid 60's by the afternoon with sunny and mostly clear skies throughout the day. The Flat rock area is made up of a mixture of different habitats including a large stretch of deciduous forest which transitions into a scrub pine forest with large stretches of exposed rock. The State forest juts up to and mixes with the private property owned by the Miner institute. The Dam and much of the grass and shrub land areas are inaccessible from the state managed forest area. While not as successful as yesterday I still managed to see a decent number of species.
Starting off on heavier forest mostly composed of deciduous tree species I worked my way down what I believe was a snowmobile/ATV trail though I'm not entirely sure. I came across both Downy and Pileated woodpeckers in this stretch of forest. As I transitioned out of the deciduous forest into the scrub pine forest I heard several White throated sparrows before I was able to locate any with my binoculars. In a small body of water tucked deeper into the area I saw a pair of Mallards as well as a Red-winged Blackbird near the water body. I also came across a House Wren and several Yellow Warblers. The scrub pine forest was a different habitat than I was used to. There was a large amount of forest cover but the canopy height was quite low. Though there was a lack of grasslands the forest was quite patchy creating a number of different shrub areas and clearings.
I eventually discovered that I was moving out of the State forest land and edging into the Miner Institute property. I then elected to move forward and exit the area rather than backtracking and potentially crossing private property again. I eventually made my way out of the state forest and came to the Miner farm road. I worked my way down the road and observed several species in the fields adjacent to the road. These included the Eastern Kingbird, Gray Catbird, Song Sparrow and the Red-winged Blackbird again. I also was able to hear several bird calls but was unfortunately unable to see them or ID them based off of the call alone.
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