Spring is weird.
Spring is so fickle. It’s cold, about 40°F, and overcast.
Spring is busy! I haven’t been able to hike for nine days because of school visits and doctor appointments.
Spring is wonderful. All three kids are home! I’m thrilled my boys are home. I know we’ll make the most of our time together by doing some big fun things but also small ordinary things.
Spring is hard. I think maybe I have bursitis in my hip. I think that’s why it’s been incredibly painful for me to stand up from sitting or sleep on my side for almost 5 months. And I have to get a hysterectomy this summer because they found some precancerous cells. I’m still processing that. It’s all weighing on my mind. I needed to get on the trail today.
(But at least this spring isn’t silent!! That’s a Rachel Carson joke.)
I’m traveling this segment the opposite way that I usually go. I know that means I’m going to be going down some very steep hills but sometimes a good physical challenge is just what you need when you have a lot of thoughts tangled up.
The beginning part of the segment in this direction follows the 28 for quite a long time.
It’s midday on a Thursday, but the traffic is so loud I can barely hear an Eastern Towhee over the roar of engines. For a brief moment, I catch the “bubble wand” call of a Wood Thrush. Cardinals are giving alarm chips. Red-wing Blackbirds make themselves heard easily.
I pause at the base of a steep hill and catch movement out of my left eye. It’s four Scarlet Tanagers hanging out in a tree together. Two males, two females. Perhaps it’s a double date?
Two hikers pass me on the hill. I reassure them I’m not lost or injured, just birding! They laugh and we wish each other well.
At the top of the hill, I decide to try a new perspective in a photo. This made me a little woozy but I got it!
I’m in the woods now, farther from the highway. It’s quiet enough that I can hear basketball shoes squeaking on a wooden court. It’s a Rose-breasted Grosbeak for sure. Two Red-Eyed Vireos call back-and-forth.
I travel down into the canyon and across the creek and back up the other side. When I cross the road, I find four, maybe five, Indigo Buntings! And another Scarlet Tanager.
One Indigo Bunting sings on a branch about three feet behind me!
I climb a hill and come to the biting horse field. I’m unnecessarily excited to see my biting horse friend. This horse doesn’t give a road apple about seeing me. I eagerly search the field. It looks empty! I can’t see it anywhere. My steps quicken and then I see my old horsey friend.
He? She? looks dignified and aloof, even standing in the mud. I give my traditional horse greeting and wish the horse a happy day. The horse twitches its ears.
Then I see a bird hopping through the mud of the horse field. It could be interesting. I lift my binoculars. It’s an American Robin. A nice bird, but not as unusual as I hoped. I still have my binoculars up at my eyes and I pause. What if, while I’ve been looking through the binoculars, the horse has silently moved closer to me? What if, when I lower my binoculars, the horse is right in front of me??? Now that would be exciting. I lower my binoculars. The horse is in the exact same spot.
Right before I leave the horse field, I stop.
“Bye,” I call out and wave. “Listen, I probably won’t see you until September. So, be good.” All of a sudden I’m choked up. I’m like that, OK? I get emotional about weird things. I’m supposed to have this surgery July 1. I should be completely fine to do my summer walks in September. But I got worried thinking the horse won’t be here when I get back.
When I walk the trail “backwards,” it usually feels familiar. But sometimes I come to spots and I’m like, have I ever been here before? It’s funny how changes directions makes things look so different.
The couple that passed me going out passes me again coming back. We stop to chat for a minute, and the man shows me an incredible picture of a beautiful Barred Owl that he saw early in the morning on the Rich Hill portion of the trail. I want to say thank you for showing me the picture of that owl. It’s gorgeous! The woman is going to run the challenge this year. To her I saw, Good luck!! You can do it. You are amazing!
I come to another road. The rain is a steady drizzle now, but the songs of at least three Wood thrushes fill the forest around me. It’s idyllic.
I walk along Baileys Run Road for a little bit. I startle an Eastern Phoebe up from the creek on my left. Then I see a familiar shape zip across the road in front of me at the intersection of Days Yun Road and Baileys Run Road. It’s a Ruby-throated Hummingbird! No - two! I watch the two hummingbirds fight for access to a feeder in the front of a house.
In the backyard of this house, I discover three or four Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, both male and female, visiting a feeder. I hear Baltimore Orioles, a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, Mourning Doves, Blue Jays, Red-Eyed Vireos, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, and a Downy Woodpecker.
I have one more large hill or small mountain to go up and over.
Falling raindrops hit leaves and make them bounce. It tricks me over and over. I come to a spot in the woods that’s just full of bird activity. Every season, this same spot on the trail has been exciting. I stand here for a good long while.
I’m close to the end of the walk now. I’m traveling up very slight gentle incline, which means I’m sort of gazing up at just the right time for a Pileated Woodpecker to explode off a nearby tree. It performs one of the most acrobatic aerial displays I’ve ever seen a bird this big do in a forest so thick with branches and leaves. It practically swirls overhead and does a looping dive before zooming away behind me. I almost applaud!!
I’m at double digits on Wood Thrush now, and I’ve probably missed some. Incredible.
When I thought I was near the end of the walk, I actually really wasn’t near at all. But I got there. Now I’m walking down Crawford Run Road crossing under the 28 after coming down one of the most difficult hills on the course. I really did scoot down it in a backward crab walk.
It was a little nice because of Rose-breasted Grosbeak sang the whole way, and at the bottom I got my first of year White-eyed Vireo!
I’m tired today. It wasn’t a long walk, but we had a late drive home yesterday bringing our son home from college. I’m ready for a drink, a snack, and a nap. But I’m so happy I walked today, even in the rain. I got to enjoy 46 species and met some friendly fellow hikers. It was a great day.
Checklist 1
RCT - Crawford Run to Bull Run, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, US
May 14, 2026 11:24 AM - 3:05 PM
Protocol: Traveling
6.696 kilometer(s)
46 species
Mourning Dove 2
Chimney Swift 7
Turkey Vulture 4
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Pileated Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
White-eyed Vireo 1
Blue-headed Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 7
Blue Jay 9
American Crow 4
Carolina Chickadee 9
Black-capped Chickadee 10
Tufted Titmouse 6
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
Northern House Wren 2
Carolina Wren 1
European Starling 2
Gray Catbird 6
Wood Thrush 10
American Robin 10
House Sparrow 3
American Goldfinch 3
Chipping Sparrow 2
Field Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1
Eastern Towhee 9
Baltimore Oriole 2
Red-winged Blackbird 7
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Hooded Warbler 4
American Redstart 2
Magnolia Warbler 1
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Northern Yellow Warbler 3
Scarlet Tanager 9
Northern Cardinal 10
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 4
Indigo Bunting 5
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S338925182