One of my favorite features of this park is the wild life. At anytime hiking through the woods here you'll see White-tailed Deer in abundance, I've seen Red-tailed Hawks soaring over meadows and the ponds are well stocked with Northern Pike and other game fish.
But one day while bushwhacking out of the woods with my daughter I made an odd discovery. I saw a young couple standing along the edge of the trail under a large Sugar Maple with their arms streached out as if they were catching rain drops. I looked up and couldn't see anything falling from the tree, but as I got closer I saw a small bird land on the hand of the young girl, take a sunflower seed and fly off. I was curious and asked the couple about the birds and they gave my daughter a hand full of seeds and she stood patiently by the edge of the trail watching for the little song birds. Then out of nowhere a bird flew up and landed on my daughters hand. She shreiked as she jumped back dropping the seeds on the ground and giggling in delight at the action of the birds tiny little tallons gripping onto her hand. I was amazed and wanted to know more about these curious little birds.
Black Capped Chickadee's are a small song bird with a black cap, white cheeks and a black bib. They are easily identified by their distinct song. "Chick-A-Dee-Dee-Dee-Dee". They can be found many places throughout the park. Black Capped Chickadee's don't migrate south as some birds do and so they live in the park year round. Chickadee's are a generally inquisitive bird and are known not to shy away from people at bird feeders. Generation after generation of birds living in this park have become accostumed to people feeding them and have grown bold enough to land on a hikers hand without a second thought.
As you walk down the trail to and from the cache listen for their song and when you hear it stop and hold your hand out in front of you with a palm full of sunflower seeds. Stand still and patient and before long a little bird will land on your hand to grab a single seed then fly off. The best time to try this is in the winter time when their typical food source of insects and caterpillars is scarce. So this cache will be accessable year round.
What your looking for is an obvious bird themed cache that should be very easy to spot. What's not so obvious is how to get into the cache and sign the log. No speacial tools are required to open this cache. No great amount of strength is needed to get into it and you do not have to take it down from it's placement either. Bring your own pen and sorry but there's no room for trade items. The real prize is when you get to Feed The Chickadee's!
Thanks for checking this out and if there's any maintenance issues or if something breaks don't feel bad just leave a note with your online log and I'm sure I can fix it. Happy Caching!