Birding & Hiking Catoctin National Park

With this post I am linking up with That's My World and World Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

This past Sunday, hubby and I hiked the 3 mile roundtrip trail to Chimney and Wolf Rocks in Catoctin National Park here in Maryland. The first bird I sighted was the Wood Thrush ...right on the trail in front of us as we started up the trail to the Chimney Rock formations.

The Wood Thrush  is a breeder in the eastern US and is found in mature deciduous forest. It populations have undergone a decline in recent decades for unknown reasons. A guess on my part for their decline would be the loss of forest and clear cutting. After all the forest is their habitat and home. The Wood Thrush is reported to have one of the most beautiful songs of all the North American birds. It was wonderful to hear them while we were walking along the trail.

The Chimney Rock formations offer some great views of the mountains.

The Eastern Wood Pewee was another bird I heard along the trail to the Chimney and Wolf Rocks.  Along with the Wood Thrush, this Wood Pewee was another bird we enjoyed hearing as we hiked along the trail. They have a cute sound  "pee-ah-wee"   sounds almost like their name.

After stopping at Chimney Rocks we continued on the the Wolf Rock formations.

It was at the Wolf Rock that I noticed these five-lined skinks together. They had a  tail area was a pretty blue.

Here is a list of the birds I saw during my hike at Catoctin National Park: Wood Thrush, Wood Pewee, Great Crested Flycatcher, Red Eyed Vireo, Scarlet Tanager, Pileated Woodpeckers, Ovenbirds, Chickadees, Bluejays and Crows.

Thanks for stopping by to see my post and I hope you visit both That's My World and   World Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes.  Thanks to the hosting group: Sylvia, Wren, Sandy , Fishing Guy and Klaus of That's My World and thanks to Springman for hosting World Bird Wednesday and to Michelle of Nature Notes.

I hope everyone has a great week :)