Dutcher's Notch from Stork Road

[mike]

We originally had plans to hike Huckleberry Point with some friends. But, as the weather forecast got ugly, we canceled the hike. Last night we started to re-evaluate our plans. Sunday looked like a possible hiking day. So, we planned on leaving 9AM in the morning. When awoke this morning we could hear it raining outside. Again, we were disappointed. But, by 10 AM the weather cleared up and we could see blue skies. After a series of roller-coaster plans, we hit the road and arrived at the parking area around noon time.

Today we planned on hiking up to Dutcher's Notch from Maple Lawn Road / Stork's Nest Road. Then we planned on hiking further west down to the waterfalls and apple orchard.

We immediately hit lots of water. The pictures don't show the massive amount of water running down the trail. But, if we had a kayak, we could have paddled our way back down the mountain. Just an amazing amount of water running down the trail.

During the day, we had periods of clouds and clear blue skies. Overall, we hiked 7.92 miles over 6-1/2 hours. Run into a couple other groups of people.

During the day, we saw and heard an incredible amount of birds. This is not uncommon for the Eastern Escarpment. But, with Winter approaching, we heard an unusual amount of birds. Very enjoyable experience. On the way back from East Kill Falls, and as we approached Dutcher's Notch, I could hear Blue Jays and other birds making a terrible racket. I immediate hoped that they were mobbing an owl. Few people are aware that there are an unusual number of Barred owls on the Eastern Escarpment and Durham Valley. Come Fall, many of them move up to the top of the Eastern Escarpment for the Winter. As we looked up into the trees we were rewarded with this Male Barred Owl. His partner was around, but we didn't see her. After the blue jays left, there was an eerie silence. Birds suddenly disappeared out of fear for this owl. Check out the picture of him below.

Here are some pictures:


Trailhead Registration


One of the few parts of the trail that wasn't a running stream


Beautiful spider web with water condensation glowing in the sun


Nice part of the trail near dutcher's notch


Trail between from Dutcher's Notch and East Kill Falls


East Kill Falls - About 8' high with a good volume of water running over it.


Slightly damaged bridge from Hurricane Irene


Apples in the old homestead near East Kill Falls - Nice organic apples - Nice and tart like the old days.


trail back to Dutcher's Notch


Male Barred Owl near Dutcher's Notch

[Emily&hounds]

The feral apple trees are all very productive this year. Cider anyone?
We have quite a few barred owls near my house in West Kill. The females have extra beautiful voices. In my experience, any weird oise you hear in the woods at night is likely to come from an owl. The ones near us intermittently make noises like a bunch of howler monkeys!
Very nice pic of a spider web.

[mike]

The apple trees were near an old homestead.

Didn't realize that they had Barred Owls in Westkill. They usually nest near water. The howler monkeys sound is how the mark their territory, or have a territory dispute with other Barred Owls. Barred owls are usually very social. Great personalities and great calls.

[mtnclimber]

The picture of the owl is so cool! Never seen one hiking in the Catskills. Strange that there are so few.