Yukon City Park

LOCATION: Yukon City Park (Yukon, OK)

Contributed by Jimmy Woodard hotspot-yukon-park2

Description: Yukon City Park, Chisholm Trail Park and Freedom Trail Playground are interconnected recreation facilities on approx. 100 acres in Yukon just north of I-40. The Copeland Nature Trail runs along a heavily wooded creek on the east side of the park. The trail includes tall cottonwoods and several patches of dense trees with heavy undergrowth. There is a gravel trail through the woods on the south end of the park. The north end of Copeland Trail is dirt or grass and follows along the 5-acre Mulvey’s Pond. There is also a wide dirt trail along Spring Creek that goes north from the dam. This trail runs north across open fields to Chisholm Trail Park.

Yukon City Park is a 47 acre-facility; covered shelters, playgrounds, restrooms, junior Olympic size pool, kiddy pool, 10-acre pond, nature trails, horseshoe courts, baseball, softball, sand volleyball and football fields, basketball, bank-shot basketball courts – includes award winning handicapped accessible Freedom Trail Playground, designed for all children. The Park is located on the area in eastern Canadian County where the Chisholm Trail passed during the post-Civil War days of cattle drives from Texas to Abilene, Kansas. Mulvey’s Pond is the actual site of the last spring-fed watering hole the cowboys and cattle encountered before reaching Abilene. It was considered the last guaranteed water on the trip through Indian Territory. hotspot-yukon-park

Directions: West of Oklahoma City on I-40. Exit north at Czech Hall Road. Turn west on NW 10th and turn north on S. Holly, the first street you approach. Other birding opportunities: Lake Overholser is located northeast of Yukon City Park. Also located in the area are Rose Lake and Stinchcomb Wildlife Preserve (north of Lake Overholser).

Jimmy Woodard’s Yukon City Park List:

Cackling Goose Downy Woodpecker Orange-crowned Warbler
Canada Goose Hairy Woodpecker Nashville Warbler
Gadwall Northern Flicker Mourning Warbler
Mallard American Kestrel Common Yellowthroat
Blue-winged Teal Eastern Wood-Pewee Hooded Warbler
Wild Turkey Yellow-bellied Flycatcher American Redstart
Pied-billed Grebe Least Flycatcher Northern Parula
Double-crested Cormorant Eastern Phoebe Yellow Warbler
American White Pelican Great Crested Flycatcher Chestnut-sided Warbler
Great Blue Heron Western Kingbird Yellow-rumped Warbler
Great Egret Eastern Kingbird Black-throated Green Warbler
Snowy Egret Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Wilson’s Warbler
Little Blue Heron White-eyed Vireo Grasshopper Sparrow
Cattle Egret Bell’s Vireo Chipping Sparrow
Green Heron Blue-headed Vireo Clay-colored Sparrow
Black-crowned Night-Heron Warbling Vireo Field Sparrow
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron Red-eyed Vireo Lark Sparrow
Turkey Vulture Blue Jay Harris’s Sparrow
Mississippi Kite American Crow White-throated Sparrow
Sharp-shinned Hawk Northern Rough-winged Swallow Vesper Sparrow
Cooper’s Hawk Purple Martin Savannah Sparrow
Red-shouldered Hawk Barn Swallow Song Sparrow
Broad-winged Hawk Cliff Swallow Lincoln’s Sparrow
Swainson’s Hawk Carolina Chickadee Spotted Towhee
Red-tailed Hawk Tufted Titmouse Summer Tanager
Sora Red-breasted Nuthatch Northern Cardinal
American Coot White-breasted Nuthatch Indigo Bunting
Killdeer Brown Creeper Painted Bunting
Spotted Sandpiper House Wren Dickcissel
Greater Yellowlegs Marsh Wren Red-winged Blackbird
Lesser Yellowlegs Carolina Wren Eastern Meadowlark
Upland Sandpiper Bewick’s Wren Yellow-headed Blackbird
Baird’s Sandpiper Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Common Grackle
Semipalmated Sandpiper Golden-crowned Kinglet Great-tailed Grackle
Wilson’s Phalarope Ruby-crowned Kinglet Brown-headed Cowbird
Bonaparte’s Gull Eastern Bluebird Orchard Oriole
Franklin’s Gull Swainson’s Thrush Baltimore Oriole
Ring-billed Gull Hermit Thrush House Finch
Forster’s Tern Wood Thrush Pine Siskin
Rock Pigeon American Robin American Goldfinch
Eurasian Collared-Dove Gray Catbird House Sparrow
White-winged Dove Brown Thrasher  
Mourning Dove Northern Mockingbird  
Yellow-billed Cuckoo European Starling  
Greater Roadrunner Cedar Waxwing  
Chimney Swift Ovenbird  
Ruby-throated Hummingbird Worm-eating Warbler  
Red-headed Woodpecker Louisiana Waterthrush  
Red-bellied Woodpecker Black-and-white Warbler  
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Tennessee Warbler