S6E15 - The Edge of Heart's Content, Part 1

[00:00:03] A Black-Hept Chickadee's Magnolia Warbler, a Chickadee singing, and a Red Iberian, the

[00:01:04] Song's Barrel, and their Yellow-Rumped Warbler somewhere here.

[00:01:27] It's content scenic area has one of the few remaining old growth forests in Pennsylvania.

[00:01:34] One might assume that because most of Allegheny National Forest is a forest that there would

[00:01:40] be more, but part of the reason for establishing the national forest was due to its overlogging

[00:01:46] in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

[00:01:51] Instead of going deep into this old growth section though, today I'll be exploring

[00:01:55] the picnic area and the nearby interpretive trails.

[00:01:59] It may seem counterintuitive, but the greatest diversity of songbirds can be heard by sticking

[00:02:06] close to the edge habitat, that is, habitats that represent the border between two or more

[00:02:14] habitats.

[00:02:15] In this case, the open meadow of the picnic area, and the old growth forest of Hart's

[00:02:21] content.

[00:02:39] My name is Rob, and this is Songbirding.

[00:03:07] So I met Hart's content, which is one of the areas in Allegheny National Forest.

[00:03:17] And this is a, uh, one of those picnic spots actually.

[00:03:28] Rest stop, picnic stop.

[00:03:31] Plus, there are some small trails here too.

[00:03:37] But because this is an open clearing, it means we can get some different species.

[00:03:45] And I just felt like it would be a really nice idea to include one of these picnic stops,

[00:03:50] just to show how much the edge habitat gives you here.

[00:04:44] Yellow-rumped warbler.

[00:04:57] Fagnolia warbler.

[00:05:09] Of course, the red, red Iberio going on and on.

[00:05:25] There's the yellow-rumped warbler.

[00:05:27] AKA, myrtle warbler.

[00:05:31] And again, that warble that ends with a short warble.

[00:05:39] DDDDD-DOO-DOO.

[00:05:41] That's a ramp down.

[00:05:47] It does its faster warble than its slower and shorter one.

[00:06:30] Little Magnolia warbler.

[00:06:32] Guess I'll pee over there on a distant oven.

[00:06:41] Um, oven bird.

[00:06:42] Okay, so this is sounding like a chipping sparrow.

[00:06:57] Yup.

[00:06:58] You got a chipping sparrow.

[00:07:00] So this is going to be a very confusing place with that chipping sparrow.

[00:07:15] There are definitely dark eyed juncos here.

[00:07:17] And I think I heard a distant pine warbler.

[00:07:44] I'll walk over to the section where I think I heard pine warbler.

[00:07:53] And when I parked here, I did hear indigo bunting over there.

[00:08:00] Now for me, this song sparrow sounds a little different than the ones in Ontario.

[00:08:12] Not by a lot but by a little.

[00:08:16] It's noticeable.

[00:08:19] Their song does change further, a field you get.

[00:08:39] Some apple trees here and a Phoebe flying around on one of them.

[00:08:43] I was kind of hoping it would vocalize.

[00:09:09] Okay, cedar wax wings.

[00:09:12] Just heard some flying over.

[00:09:21] A distant red squirrel.

[00:09:27] Ah, so there is pine warbler over here.

[00:09:33] I don't know if I'll be able to get close to it though.

[00:09:40] But let's see how close I can get.

[00:11:10] Lots of red eyed virios.

[00:11:12] Just had a red eyed virio mimicking a common yellowthroat briefly.

[00:11:47] Oh no, there is a common yellowthroat here.

[00:11:49] Okay, good.

[00:12:13] White breastnut hatch.

[00:12:19] Very short witchida witchida out of the common yellowthroat.

[00:12:49] Morning dove.

[00:12:56] There's the yellowthroat again.

[00:12:59] Okay, there is an indigo bunting across there.

[00:13:02] Fire fire where where here here put it out put it out.

[00:13:06] There's the rhythm to that song.

[00:13:08] But he was kind of at a medium distance.

[00:13:13] It's audible, just not loud.

[00:13:21] Wonder if there's waxwing nests in here or something.

[00:13:28] There's a bunch of them acting funny in here.

[00:13:31] A chipping sparrow.

[00:13:45] Cedar waxwing, very high-pitched wine.

[00:13:48] Oh, definitely some young ones being fed somewhere here.

[00:14:26] Waxwings are a very common yellowthroat.

[00:14:35] Waxwings are colonial nesters.

[00:14:38] There's probably multiple nests here if they are here.

[00:14:41] Oh, yeah, there is a pine warbley here.

[00:15:01] But it's not doing typical quiet or louder thing.

[00:15:07] Fade in, fade out.

[00:15:10] Because it's doing a very short song.

[00:15:42] Quite a nice little meadow here.

[00:16:19] You heard distant American robin there?

[00:16:36] Put it out, I should start my e-bird list.

[00:16:50] Okay, so we're starting with the indigo bunting.

[00:16:55] Some morning doves.

[00:16:58] We need pine warbley.

[00:17:00] A couple of myrtle warblers.

[00:17:02] Some red-eyed virgals.

[00:17:04] We've got a song sparrow.

[00:17:09] What is that pine warbley?

[00:17:16] A little bit of a red-eyed virgals.

[00:17:25] We've got a song sparrow.

[00:17:37] What is that pine warbley?

[00:17:47] Distant crow.

[00:18:07] More black cat chickadees.

[00:18:19] I was hearing something I thought was different,

[00:18:22] but it might just be that song sparrow.

[00:18:25] Throwing my ears off.

[00:18:27] Got a couple of Magnolia warblers.

[00:18:34] What else should I put on the e-bird list here?

[00:18:41] Well, there's a downy woodpecker.

[00:18:52] It sounds like we have a woodthrush.

[00:18:55] Nope, we have a hermitthrush.

[00:19:05] We do have an ovenbird.

[00:19:26] Lots of cedar wax wings.

[00:19:28] It's coming through this list.

[00:19:35] There was a toad.

[00:19:37] I don't know if we heard it.

[00:19:43] Common eel-throat.

[00:19:53] Yeah, that seems like a dark-eyed junco.

[00:19:58] There's a few of those flying around.

[00:20:00] I'm going to rob them.

[00:20:27] I think I've got my e-bird list ready.

[00:20:30] Should we continue here?

[00:20:37] There's some really nice mosses on the ground here.

[00:20:43] It's very soft to walk on.

[00:20:45] What have we got here?

[00:20:53] A very nice Myrtle warbler.

[00:20:56] Out in the open.

[00:21:50] Myrtle warbler decided not to be nice to me for photos.

[00:21:54] So we'll move along.

[00:22:01] That's one of those things I wish I had more time for.

[00:22:04] But it's not very easy to take photos and carry a recorder.

[00:22:09] Kind of got to do one or the other.

[00:22:37] In the next episode, we'll continue our exploration of the edge habitat of Hart's content.

[00:22:44] Songbirding, the Allegheny National Forest, is a songbirding studios production

[00:22:50] and was recorded, engineered, narrated and created by me, Rob Porter

[00:22:55] with cover art and logo design by Lauren Helton

[00:22:58] and Creative Commons Music from Jason Shaw.