New York Birder's Conference 2014 and Ithaca Birding

As I write this, I have just arrived back home from five wonderful days birding and attending NYSOA'S annual New York Birder's Conference at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, NY.  I wish I could have written daily updates from Ithaca but this was unfortunately not possible. To catch up, I shall now attempt to give a brief summary of each day.

Day 1

Wednesday, September 17

My first full day in Ithaca was rather uneventful. I was not able to do much birding as my father had a business event for much of the day, but when he returned, I did manage to get over to Stewart Park, a major hotspot, for a little while. Stewart Park looks out over Cayuga Lake, the largest of the five Finger Lakes. The scenery was beautiful, but the place was oddly devoid of birds. The highlights of this quick trip were Belted Kingfisher and Common Merganser. Other more common birds included Mallard, Canada Goose, Ring-billed and Herring Gull, American Crow, and Double-crested Cormorant.

Cayuga Lake, as seen from Stewart Park

Day 2

Thursday, September 18

Thursday, my only free day for birding and nothing but birding, was very busy. The first stop was the Freese Road Community Gardens, a community garden run by Cornell Cooperative Extension. Parts of these gardens are overgrown with wildflowers and tall grasses, making it great for sparrows and the like in fall. Arriving there, I found the flowers to also be very attractive to butterflies, and I observed several different species there, including Clouded Sulphur and Eastern Tailed-Blue.

Birds, too were abundant, but it was somewhat frustrating the way the kept popping up and flying away to the opposite side of the field, then waiting till I got over there to fly back to the other end. But I got good looks at Song and Lincoln's Sparrows and American Goldfinches. American Crows were also present. 

Clouded Sulphur

Lincoln's Sparrow

American Goldfinch

I made a brief stop at the Johnson Visitor Center of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and then it was on to the Fuertes Sanctuary, which is a bird sanctuary named after famed bird artist and Ithaca native Louis Agassiz Fuertes. Here, too, birds abounded; a list of some of the species I observed there include Red-eyed Vireo, Scarlet Tanager, Carolina Wren, Belted Kingfisher, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vulture, Black-capped Chickadee and Downy Woodpecker.

Ithaca Falls, another location I visited on Thursday

Day 3

Friday, September 19

Friday marked the beginning of the New York State Ornithological Association (NYSOA) conference, hosted this year by the Cayuga Bird Club. It was also the day I got to bird a place I had heard so many great things about, the Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary. The Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary, or simply Sapsucker to the locals, is situated behind the world-famous Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Some notable birds observed there included the sanctuary's namesake, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe, Cedar Waxwing, Great Blue Heron, Belted Kingfisher and Wood Duck. There was even a Mallard x American Black Duck Hybrid, which, appropriately enough, looked like a combination between a Mallard and Black Duck. 

Sapsucker Woods Pond

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Great Blue Heron

That night, I got to go to a reception and some other events at the lab. These other invents included a presentation on Cornell's website All About Birds, a look at a display of commemorative Passenger Pigeon Artwork and the personal study of Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and a behind-the-scenes tour of the lab and the Macaulay Library.

The originals by Louis Agassiz Fuertes

Passenger Pigeon by Charlie Harper

Friday was also the day I finally saw Big Red, one of the Cornell Hawks. Two Red-tailed Hawks, nicknamed Big Red and Ezra, have nested on the light towers at the Cornell Athletic field for many years now. Thanks to the Lab of Ornithology, viewers around the world have been able to watch inside their nest on a livestreaming cam. I have watched for two years, and by around the second week of my first year I was helplessly addicted. 

Big Red

Cornell Hawk Cams

Day 4

Saturday, September 20

Day four was, unfortunately, not a day of birding. It was a day of sitting inside a conference center listening to fascinating talks about birds, including one extremely intriguing presenation by Bridget Strutchbury on migration tracking in Purple Martins and Wood Thrushes. I also got to hang out with some other members of the New York State Young Birder's Club (NYSYBC), where those of us who had not traveled to far-flung (at least from New York) locations to bird where awed by photos and stories from those who had.

Day 5

Sunday, September 21

Pack up, get in the car, and go. After an eight-hour drive through New York City traffic, it was done. It was, though, a remarkable trip, one that I will most likely always remember.