Looking for Hot Spots for hiking and birding off US44....or with a slight detour?
Before birding there was hiking but I'd say they morphed together close to the same time.
I make a Spring or occasionally a mid Summer migration to northern Wisconsin, stopping in Chicago to pick up friends. My preferred route is US44 out of Texas and up through Missouri. I make a day/overnight stop at Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur Oklahoma, a great spot to bird with lots of trails. Maybe later I'll post something in the Oklahoma thread about Chickasaw.
My next stop is my best birding & hiking spot prior to Wisconsin; Shaw Nature Reserve at Gray Summit.
Spring birding at Shaw is fantastic but summer birding is just as good. It is so pretty; it has a number of prairie spots, 4 little lakes, a wetland, glades, buffs over looking a hardwood forest on the Meramec River....14 miles of trails...I love this place...!!
In doing research for my spring trip I ran across Bird_Bill's thread Time Table for spring neo-trop movement thru St. Louis which included an aticle Counting Warblers: A Timetable for the Spring Songbird Migration Through Saint Louis. The article was a fascinating read; to a layman it was an excellent example of using field data however, the real gem was a table on warbler peak dates.
After clicking on a link in the article and doing a few google searches, I found what appears to be another choice spot for hiking and birding; Castlewood State Park.
Are there others I missing...hiking and birding spots?
In years past I made detours to Mark Twain National Forest around Fort Leonard Wood. The hiking was excellent but the birding was anti-climatic. Maybe I didn't hit the right trail.
If you have suggestions I'd surely appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Oh...I've attached pdf files on the warbler peak dates, Shaw's trail map, Castlewood trail map, and on Bird_Bill's Counting Warblers article. Why....because everyone knows Missouri is the "Show Me" state...!!! :t:
Before birding there was hiking but I'd say they morphed together close to the same time.
I make a Spring or occasionally a mid Summer migration to northern Wisconsin, stopping in Chicago to pick up friends. My preferred route is US44 out of Texas and up through Missouri. I make a day/overnight stop at Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur Oklahoma, a great spot to bird with lots of trails. Maybe later I'll post something in the Oklahoma thread about Chickasaw.
My next stop is my best birding & hiking spot prior to Wisconsin; Shaw Nature Reserve at Gray Summit.
Spring birding at Shaw is fantastic but summer birding is just as good. It is so pretty; it has a number of prairie spots, 4 little lakes, a wetland, glades, buffs over looking a hardwood forest on the Meramec River....14 miles of trails...I love this place...!!
In doing research for my spring trip I ran across Bird_Bill's thread Time Table for spring neo-trop movement thru St. Louis which included an aticle Counting Warblers: A Timetable for the Spring Songbird Migration Through Saint Louis. The article was a fascinating read; to a layman it was an excellent example of using field data however, the real gem was a table on warbler peak dates.
After clicking on a link in the article and doing a few google searches, I found what appears to be another choice spot for hiking and birding; Castlewood State Park.
Are there others I missing...hiking and birding spots?
In years past I made detours to Mark Twain National Forest around Fort Leonard Wood. The hiking was excellent but the birding was anti-climatic. Maybe I didn't hit the right trail.
If you have suggestions I'd surely appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Oh...I've attached pdf files on the warbler peak dates, Shaw's trail map, Castlewood trail map, and on Bird_Bill's Counting Warblers article. Why....because everyone knows Missouri is the "Show Me" state...!!! :t: