Wren and I started early on a cool morning, and I immediately began to hear birds – both as we hiked and when I stopped to officially conduct surveys. The habitat along the Jackrabbit is diverse – varying from pine to balsam to cedar to mixed deciduous woods, and the bird communities run the gamut of habitats as well.
I almost immediately began to hear Nashville, magnolia, black and white, and black-throated blue warblers. Red-eyed vireos and blue-headed vireos (among many others) also sang from the trees. And so our bird list began to grow as I progressed down the trail surveying. Any walk along the Jackrabbit in June should yield at least ten species of warblers, and this day was no different. We soon added blackburnian, yellow-rumped, black-throated green, American redstart, common yellowthroat, northern parula, and ovenbird to our list. Strictly deciduous sections of the trail were less diverse (as usual) and were dominated by red-eyed vireos, ovenbirds, hermit thrush, and black-throated green warblers.
About a mile into the trail we crossed the outlet stream from McKenzie Pond which was practically a raging torrent thanks to all of our recent rain. I intentionally do not have any survey points set up close to the stream where the noise of the water would make it difficult to hear singing birds. Fast water or not, Wren was quickly in the stream for a swim and a drink, and she picked up sticks and dropped them at my feet for me to throw into the water. We had work to do, however, and so I promised her that at the end of the morning we would have time for her to chase sticks.
As we continued on, I heard my first Canada warblers of the day – one of my favorite warblers. The birds were singing in their preferred wet, brushy habitat and I unfortunately didn't have time to hunt for them. We passed the trail which leads into McKenzie Pond and climbed the long hill which marks the knees of the mountains where we finished our surveys before turning around. We had hiked a few miles and had reached our final survey point. We descended back down the hill, and took a detour to the pond where I kept my promise to Wren. She excitedly jumped in to retrieve stick after stick. It was the highlight of her day.

