Forest Roads 3344 & 3145

The ridge along Forest Road 3344 can serve as a great migrant trap in the spring. Passerines concentrate here and magnolia, Nashville, black-and-white, palm and chestnut-sided warblers are common. Mourning, blackpoll and Cape May warblers may be found as well. Check the marsh edges for singing Lincoln's sparrows and yellow-bellied and alder flycatchers frequent these edges as well. Swamp sparrows, Virginia rails and sedge wrens sing from within the marsh with Wilson's snipes winnowing overhead. Boreal chickadees, black-backed woodpeckers, spruce grouse and Canada jays have been spotted on this road before but are rather rare finds. You might get lucky and encounter foraging sandhill cranes with a fledgling walking down the road in summer. 

After 4.5 miles, Forest Road 3344 ends. Continue the loop by turning right (north) onto Forest Road 3145. As the road progresses, the forest fades from open pine forest intermixed with deciduous thickets to mature mixed forest. This transition attracts species such as black-throated blue warblers, Philadelphia vireos and barred owls. Listen for the "kip" call notes of the red crossbills, which may be accompanied by white-winged crossbills. Yellow-bellied sapsuckers and broad-winged hawks can be spotted and breed in the area. Scarlet tanagers sing their hoarse song from the treetops and the downward spiraling song of the veeries are commonly heard.