#4 Rocky Ridge County Park
Property Manager: York County Parks (717) 840-7440
GPS address: 3699 Deininger Road, York, PA, 17406
Hours: Dawn until Dusk
Parking: Front lot (Hidden Laurel) or back lot (Oak Timbers)
Restrooms: Restrooms are open at Hidden Laurel and Oak Timbers.
Safety Reminders: Mountain Bikers and runner use the trails heavily. Be careful on sharp turns and hilly terrain. Hunting is permitted in certain areas. Two days in December the park will close for antlerless deer hunts.
Best Birding: Year round, dawn until dusk
Site Description: This is the best public area to view migration of hawks and warblers in York County. Not situated along a river, creek, or lake, the birds are attracted to the green space and habitat atop a prominent ridge. Most of Rocky Ridge’s 750-acres is mature oak forest. In summer songs of Wood Thrush, Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Wood-Pewee and Hooded Warbler can be heard throughout the wooded trails. Rocky Ridge is great for birding year round, but is most exciting in spring (May) and fall (September) when migration peaks.
In this forest park walking in the woods makes birding by ear necessary. In many spots along the trails the forest is not what one would consider an “open forest”. Lots of mountain laurel, trees, and other shrubs will obscure your views. Two man-made areas actually create the best birding areas at Rocky Ridge. On trail 1 “Sue’s Trail” less than a minute’s walk inside the woods from the back parking area a “man-made” feeding station maintained by the York Audubon Society also attracts feeder birds in the winter months.
The first day-use area on the left when entering the park is the Hidden Laurel area. The edges of the athletic field there are known to birders as the “ball field”. This spot is an easy flat one minute walk west of the Hidden Laurel parking. The location is active with migrant warblers in spring and fall.
The second area is the power line cut. This cut is perfect habitat for Field Sparrow, Eastern Towhee, Indigo Bunting, and many other birds. Golden-winged Warbler has been seen there along with 30 or more warbler species annually. There are many features worth visiting in the power line cut accessible from the Oak Timbers parking at the eastern terminus of the park’s road. A small vernal pond usually dried up by late-July is active in spring. The pond refills in fall. Interesting wetland birds have been viewed here when water is present and not frozen.
The cut is home to two observation platforms. The north platform is home to Rocky Ridge’s official hawkwatch. This project began in 1985. Thousands of raptors have been counted at this location. Recently volunteers have been watching September 1st – November 1st. Northeast winds tend to make hawk counting very exciting at Rocky Ridge. Five days of those NE winds in a row resulted in 10,000 raptors being counted in September of 2019. September is the best month for Broad-winged Hawk migration. Visit later in the season, late October-November, for a chance to see a Golden Eagle, Northern Goshawk, or Rough-legged Hawk. The hawkwatch averages one or two of these “rare for York” birds each season.
Property Manager: York County Parks (717) 840-7440
GPS address: 3699 Deininger Road, York, PA, 17406
Hours: Dawn until Dusk
Parking: Front lot (Hidden Laurel) or back lot (Oak Timbers)
Restrooms: Restrooms are open at Hidden Laurel and Oak Timbers.
Safety Reminders: Mountain Bikers and runner use the trails heavily. Be careful on sharp turns and hilly terrain. Hunting is permitted in certain areas. Two days in December the park will close for antlerless deer hunts.
Best Birding: Year round, dawn until dusk
Site Description: This is the best public area to view migration of hawks and warblers in York County. Not situated along a river, creek, or lake, the birds are attracted to the green space and habitat atop a prominent ridge. Most of Rocky Ridge’s 750-acres is mature oak forest. In summer songs of Wood Thrush, Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Wood-Pewee and Hooded Warbler can be heard throughout the wooded trails. Rocky Ridge is great for birding year round, but is most exciting in spring (May) and fall (September) when migration peaks.
In this forest park walking in the woods makes birding by ear necessary. In many spots along the trails the forest is not what one would consider an “open forest”. Lots of mountain laurel, trees, and other shrubs will obscure your views. Two man-made areas actually create the best birding areas at Rocky Ridge. On trail 1 “Sue’s Trail” less than a minute’s walk inside the woods from the back parking area a “man-made” feeding station maintained by the York Audubon Society also attracts feeder birds in the winter months.
The first day-use area on the left when entering the park is the Hidden Laurel area. The edges of the athletic field there are known to birders as the “ball field”. This spot is an easy flat one minute walk west of the Hidden Laurel parking. The location is active with migrant warblers in spring and fall.
The second area is the power line cut. This cut is perfect habitat for Field Sparrow, Eastern Towhee, Indigo Bunting, and many other birds. Golden-winged Warbler has been seen there along with 30 or more warbler species annually. There are many features worth visiting in the power line cut accessible from the Oak Timbers parking at the eastern terminus of the park’s road. A small vernal pond usually dried up by late-July is active in spring. The pond refills in fall. Interesting wetland birds have been viewed here when water is present and not frozen.
The cut is home to two observation platforms. The north platform is home to Rocky Ridge’s official hawkwatch. This project began in 1985. Thousands of raptors have been counted at this location. Recently volunteers have been watching September 1st – November 1st. Northeast winds tend to make hawk counting very exciting at Rocky Ridge. Five days of those NE winds in a row resulted in 10,000 raptors being counted in September of 2019. September is the best month for Broad-winged Hawk migration. Visit later in the season, late October-November, for a chance to see a Golden Eagle, Northern Goshawk, or Rough-legged Hawk. The hawkwatch averages one or two of these “rare for York” birds each season.