First On The List -Wopowag Wildlife Management Area

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have made a list of potential birding locations to explore. I have noticed a little area on the map called The Wopowag Wildlife Management area for some time now. On Friday, I finally decided to check it out first hand. It is located off of Wopowag Road, near the junction of 196 and 151 in East Hampton.

This area is a 400 acre patch of preserved land near the Salmon River.The accessibility to open area seemed to be very limited with a dirt road leading to the river being the primary path.There were also a couple of other short paths leading to the river through the woods.The woods were mixed deciduous and evergreen.There was also a lot of shrubs and thicket areas with areas of overgrown grass.

I only spent about 45 minutes in the area. My favorite birding moment came when I spotted one of those sparrows that I was not able to identify upon first spotting it. First I had to remind myself to keep my hands off the camera until I tried to get a better look at field marks. It had a rusty cap, eye ring, and a sort of pinkish bill.The bird had a dull washed out look overall.I checked the field guide and voila-it was a Field Sparrow ! It's not always that easy for me with sparrows. Some times I don't make a decision on the i.d. with juvenile birds. I was pleased to have been able to make the i.d. this time. One down, many more sparrow challenges to come.

Then I heard a noisy keeyar, keeyar, keeyar call. Oh I know that one-easy-a Red-shouldered Hawk-right? Wrong-It was a Blue Jay doing an imitation of one. I'll bet you that I was fooled by that call a couple of times over the last month and didn't even realize it.

Can you tell what kind of tree this is ? Every time that I find a patch of these trees, I find a bunch of birds in them. There were House Wrens, Palm Warblers, and several other birds bopping around in them.

I worked my way down to the river where I saw the little flock of Canada Geese. It makes for a nice seen when they're in a river versus along side a pond where they walk all over their own droppings.

Across the street from the parking lot was a swampy area. I had a nice look at some male Eastern Towhees. There were four of them all together.

I would rate the area a c+. It has some potential, so I will be checking it out again in the future. It's one of those places that's worth a look before heading on to somewhere else. One of my favorite areas, Machimoudus Park, is right up the road.

I visited an undeveloped portion of the Airline Rail Trail today. I'll tell you all about that in my next post.