Week Twenty-four, spent primarily in upstate New York, was among the highlight’s of the entire year, replete with a wide variety of birds as I explored the Adirondacks and Fingerlakes regions. It’s successor, however, make the lowlights. Allergies, heat, and technical difficulties conspired to leave me sitting inside wallowing in misery for the bulk of the week – and as a result, this post is as short as it is late (my apologies on that latter front, by the way – but at least the reason for that is a positive one in that so far Week Twenty-six has left behind the woes of its predecessor and has been some pretty solid birding).
On Monday the 16th, recovering from prior week’s near-nonstop birding that was equal parts rewarding and exhausting, I slept in a little bit before hitting the road and heading to Letchworth State Park, where I stopped to make myself breakfast and do a bit of birding at the Mount Morris Dam. While I was eating I spotted a Peregrine Falcon fly over and heard singing Eastern Wood-Pewee, Eastern Kingbird, Carolina Wren, and an assortment of other birds. The day picked up and provided one of the few highlights of the week when I headed to the nearby River Road, along which I tallied a solid list of birds including Wild Turkey, Northern House Wren, Savannah Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark, Acadian Flycatcher, Yellow-throated Vireo, Brown Creeper, Veery, Black-and-white Warbler, massive numbers of Ovenbird, Hooded Warbler, and American Redstart, and three different singing Mourning Warbler! After I wrapped up at River Road I made the decision to just call it a day as my allergies started to flare up – an unfortunate omen of the days to come.
On Tuesday morning I headed to Allegany State Park to meet local birder Kyle Brock, with whom I kicked off the day with an exceptionally productive walk at the France Brook Road area of the park. While there we picked up Acadian Flycatcher, Alder Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Blue-headed Vireo, Swainson’s Thrush, Dark-eyed Junco, Louisiana Waterthrush, Magnolia Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, and an impressive high count of sixteen Blackburnian Warbler. Our next stop in the Bova Area yielded Green Heron, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Blue-winged Warbler, Hooded Warbler, and Scarlet Tanager, and then around the Red House Maintenance Area we added Osprey, Willow Flycatcher, Purple Finch, Baltimore Oriole, Northern Parula, and Mourning Warbler to the already solid day.
At our next stop, a walk along a trail off the Highway 86, we tracked down Broad-winged Hawk, Hermit Thrush, and Pine Warbler but dipped on our targeted Black-throated Blue Warbler. Finally we wrapped up our time in the state park with a short visit to Dead End Road, where we heard a calling Virginia Rail. So far the morning, and the week, were off to a great start – but unfortunately it was at this point that the train started to go off the rails.
Hoping to pick up one of my very few remaining targets for New York in Sora or Wilson’s Snipe, Kyle and I made our way to the Conewango Swamp Wildling Management Area, spotting a Common Raven flying over the road on the way. In order to get to the spot where the Snipe would be a possibility we had to do a bit of bushwhacking through a field of sedge – something the likes of which I have done before without issue. Now, it is at this point that I should mention that as the morning of great birding had been progressing my allergies had gradually been getting worse and worse, and by this point they were already pretty bad. If you’re more sensible than me you might read that and think, “Hey, Danny, maybe trekking through a bunch of flowering sedge might not be the best idea while in the midst of pretty bad season allergies.”, then to that I say I wish you had been there to provide that sage advice before it was too late.
Kyle and I unfortunately didn’t have any Sora or Wilson’s Snipe back farther into the field, but I wish that was all I could note about the stop, but unfortunately by the time we made it back to our cars my allergies had gone from bad to brutal, and I was not only sneezing practically non-stop but my eyes felt as if someone was holding a hot coal to them, providing a sensation that made me want to just dig my eyeballs out and be done with it. Had I not already taken my allergy meds earlier in the day I wonder how much worse it could have been, because as it was it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. We swinging by Goodwins Landing Road we took a short break and got food from a nearby diner, partly because we were getting hungry and partly because we hoped my allergies might settle down a bit.
The former situation was remedied with the stop, but unfortunately the latter was not. After swinging back by the Conewango Swamp (this time not heading into the field) we headed to Flatiron Road to see if we could manage any more field-y birds, but unfortunately by this point I was coming to the determination that I had to call it a day. Kyle and I parted ways and I headed into town to spend the day sitting at a McDonald’s hoping my allergies would eventually settle down. Eventually they would, of course, but unfortunately for me instead of starting to settle down on Tuesday evening they waited until Saturday morning, and the days between would be some of the worst I’ve had this year.
On Wednesday morning I slept in a get after having a rather restless night, and after getting up I hit the road headed for Pennsylvania. In the early morning my allergies were still pretty bad, but they seemed better than the extremity of the day prior and were manageable. Eventually I arrived at at the Alleghany National Forest Longhouse Scenic Drive, where I got my second visit to Pennsylvania (the first having been a single morning back in May between West Virginia and Maryland) off to a great start with twelve warbler species including Black-and-white Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, and Cerulean Warbler as well as Winter Wren and Dark-eyed Junco.
As I continued down the road into McKean County and the Kiasutha Recreation Area my allergies started to build back up to the level of the day prior – an issue that would have been bad enough had it been the worst I would face for the day, but around that same time my phone just froze. The screen was totally nonresponsive, pressing the power and volume buttons did nothing, and even attempting a forced restart didn’t work. I was in the middle of rural Pennsylvania with no idea of where any towns were with what effectively amounted to one half-working eye and no map service or any other functions of a cell phone. Fun time. After a couple hours of blindly (double meaning there) driving around I eventually stumbled across a Burger King and got on my laptop to utilize the Wifi to contact my parents and inform them of the phone issues as well as to try to troubleshoot them. Fortunately the situation would eventually be resolved when my phone’s battery died and upon recharging and starting it up it worked normally, but unfortunately there was no similar remedy for my allergies. I didn’t get out birding at all the rest of the day, and neither was I able to productively work on writing my blog post that was supposed to come out that day as I couldn’t even focus on my laptop screen very well or concentrate enough to write.
Thursday and Friday were more of the same, both days only consisting of a little birding in the morning before the allergies returned in full force and left me functionally incapacitated, but stops PA at State Game Areas 151 on the 26th and 284 on the 27th produced a few good birds including Sandhill Crane, Red-headed Woodpecker, Henslow’s Sparrow, and Bobolink. Finally on Saturday my allergies dropped from about a 10/10 to an 8/10, and stops at the Conneaut Marsh along West Vernon Road and McMichael Road as well as the bulk of the day spent at Presque Isle State Park pushed me past the 100-mark for the state. Presque Isle Park in particular was exceptional, especially at Gull Point, where my list included such highlights as Piping Plover, Caspian Tern, Common Tern, Brown Thrasher, and my first-of-year Wilson’s Phalarope. The Phalarope was actually breeding at the site and others have photographed the chicks in recent days, but I was unable to track down the adorable fluffballs and “only” spotted the adult.
While my allergies had finally died down, they were unfortunately replaced by another problem as the region was hit by a major heatwave. Over the course of Saturday temperatures rose into the high-90s, and after my walk in the heat at Presque Isle I called it a day as a result. The head continued on Sunday as I made my way southwest towards Ohio, putting in a few more stops in Pennsylvania at Raccoon Creek State Park and Hillman State Park, with neither stop being particularly bird or yielding anything new for the state probably in large part due to the heat. I closed out the week Sunday evening with a bit of a highlight after waiting out the midday heat a bit before entering Ohio and heading to Busby Road, where Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Common Raven, Grasshopper Sparrow, Henslow’s Sparrow, Bobolink, Eastern Meadowlark, Orchard Oriole, and Dickcissel would rocket my Ohio list off to a great start!
The heat wouldn’t die down much through Week Twenty-six, but with the allergies hopefully continuing to have subsided and the help of a handful of excellent local birders I would make the best of it and get back to the norm of the year, which has decisively been incredible birding, fantastic places, and awesome people.
Happy Birding!
eBird Trip Summary:
First and foremost - thank you to anyone who chooses to support me in this insane adventure of mine. When I initially had this idea and began planning I didn't even consider the possibility that others would want to support me, but I am extremely grateful to those who have reached out to do so. For those who are interested in supporting me, I have set up a Patreon, which can be accessed by clicking the logo to the left (or you can send me a message via the contact page). Again, thank you for your incredibly generous support!
All Patrons will receive my "Daily Notes" 12-36 hours after the end of each day, and Patrons subscribed to the "Sponsor" tier will receive monthly postcards, mailed out between the 25th and end of each month.
For anyone who wishes to support me without using Patreon, clicking the "$" Icon will link you to my Venmo as well. There is also an option on Patreon to purchase my Daily Notes Collection for a one-time $10 payment without becoming a paid member, which will give you access to the Daily Notes without having to subscribe to a monthly subscription. For those who it requests the last four of my number for, it's 1403.
Following recent suggestions I went ahead and created a GoFundMe in order to help ensure I can keep this adventure going and afford the costs of gas, vehicle maintenance, and food (including, with enough support, some more diversity in my diet). The GoFundMe can be accessed by clicking the image link with the coin going into the donation box. (If anyone knows how to add a custom icon on Elemetor to make the Venmo and GoFundMe Links their respective logos, I'd love to hear how to do it!)
Thank you again to those of you who have supported me so far, it's tremendously generous and greatly appreciated.
Follow me on my journey to see 100 species in every Lower-48 State during 2025, experience some of the incredible places and events in American birding, and meet and bird with as many local birders as possible along the way.
Posts will be made every Wednesday (I will try to have them out by 5pm, but situationally they might be a bit later) and will cover the previous Monday through Sunday. Additional posts will be made periodically with no set schedule.
