History, Natural History & the Arts
By mid-October, many birds have migrated south, but some lucky birders may still be able to spot an American coot, an uncommon bird that passes through New York State.
American coots can be found swimming in lakes, ponds, or rivers, anywhere there is aquatic vegetation for them to eat. They are usually floating among other waterfowl or foraging on shore. [Read more…] about The Life of an American Coot
Ausable Marsh Wildlife Management Area (WMA) spans 660 acres along the shores of Lake Champlain in Peru, in Clinton County, NY, and features a fertile delta formed over thousands of years. The area protects 12 ecological communities, including floodplain forests and wetland marshes, making it a unique haven for a wide variety of wildlife species, especially migrating birds. [Read more…] about Watchable Wildlife: Ausable Marsh Wildlife Management Area
As summer ticks towards autumn, the flow of birds heading south for the winter grows in volume until it becomes a rushing torrent of migrants in September and into October. Millions of birds – hundreds of millions, in fact – will pass through the Northeast’s airspace during this time, as species that bred up north head to warmer locations. But this southbound river of migrating birds all began with a few drops as far back as early July, when a handful of shorebirds from northern arctic and subarctic regions started heading south. [Read more…] about Encountering Solitary Sandpipers On Their Way South
If you live near a large meadow, hayfield, or grassland, you may have recently noticed some bubbly robotic noises emanating from those areas. It might sound like an overexcited android, but the real source is a medium-sized songbird, the bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus).
One of the few avian grassland specialists in the Northeast, bobolinks have recently returned from their wintering grounds in southern South America and are now fully engaged in breeding activity. [Read more…] about Bobolink: The Grassland Bird in a Reverse Tuxedo
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has launched the I BIRD NY Library Lending Program. The hopes to expand access to free birding equipment by offering backpacks with binoculars and reference materials about birding in New York to libraries across the State. [Read more…] about Beginner Birding Library Lending Program Launched
Spring is an ideal time to observe bird migrations. New York is conveniently located along the Atlantic Flyway, one of the main migration routes.
This provides a great opportunity to observe birds flying to their summer breeding grounds. Here’s a few resources to get you started: [Read more…] about Watching Migrating Birds This Spring: A Primer
The Open Space Institute (OSI) has planned for the protection of 175 acres of marsh and forest land, including wetland areas, along Route 299 in the Towns of New Paltz and Gardiner in Ulster County.
When the owners of the Humpo Marshlands and Forest property decided it was time to figure out long-term plans for their family’s farm they called Bob Anderberg, OSI’s Senior Vice President and Strategic Conservation Advisor. Anderberg had reached out to the family more than 20 years earlier about preserving the land and had continued that dialogue over the years. [Read more…] about Shawangunk Ridge Viewshed, Wetlands Protected
Light in the evening brings the first sign of spring’s arrival. Before the snow has fully melted or any scraps of green start to appear, those lengthening days are a promise. Just when I’ve forgotten the world was ever anything except cold and gray, I’ll step outside into a mauve six o’clock sunset and remind myself to be patient.
Soon the salamanders will be stirring in the leaf litter, the fiddleheads will poke their sleepy heads above the ground, and color will return. But how does the forest know when spring has truly arrived? [Read more…] about The Lengthening Days of Spring
Most people in New York when asked to picture a duck, they’re thinking of an eastern mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos) – the green head, the quack, the pond. But just 90-100 years ago, mallards were not known to breed in New York State. Since the ban of live decoys in the 1930s, mallards have been released and taken over as the preeminent duck of the northern Atlantic Flyway.
After all-time highs in the early 2000s however, we have seen significant declines in eastern mallards. [Read more…] about Mallard Ducks: An Environmental History Leading to Decline
While many of our region’s colorful birds fly south for the cold months, resident woodpeckers offer a reliable contrast to this season’s monochrome palette. A pileated woodpecker’s blazing crest and the miniature red cap of a hairy woodpecker brighten the gray-and-white doldrums.
But few avian winter wardrobes match the brilliance of the northern flicker (Colaptes auratus), a mostly migratory bird that every so often toughs out the snow and ice. [Read more…] about A Rare Winter Flicker of Red and Yellow
In late autumn, cold air masses come barreling down from the Canadian Arctic like an atmospheric avalanche, bringing with them a visitor from the North: the rough-legged hawk (Buteo lagopus). [Read more…] about The Rough-Legged Hawk: A Winter Visitor
Every holiday season there is a mass migration of humans towards home and family. We use many tools to help us navigate back to the places we’re from – from simple maps to sophisticated GPS – but animals who travel long distances must rely on their own senses.
Some of them have a long-range navigational sense called magnetoreception that is like a built-in compass or imprecise GPS. [Read more…] about Returning Home by Magnetic Homing
At this point in the season, most migrating songbirds and raptors have already left. But on lakes and ponds across the Northeast, some loons are still fishing and paddling.
Loon parents may set off for the ocean before their young can fly, so it’s not uncommon to see loon chicks alone on the water in late autumn. [Read more…] about Lingering Loon Chicks Preparing for Migration
The wild passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was once the most abundant bird in North America, numbering perhaps as many as 5 billion individuals. It migrated in enormous flocks on a constant search for food and shelter. They were hunted on a massive scale and sold as cheap commercial food until the last wild pigeon was shot in Ohio in 1900.
In Chainbearer, a novel set after the American Revolution in about 1785 in Upstate New York, James Fenimore Cooper gives this account of a passenger pigeon roost of millions of birds in the Champlain Valley: [Read more…] about A World of Pigeons: A Champlain Valley Pigeon Roost, ca. 1785
Each fall, migrating birds can be seen flying south to their wintering grounds.
This is the ideal time of year for New York residents and visitors to head to Bird Conservation Areas across the state for great bird watching opportunities. [Read more…] about Fall Bird Migration is Underway
There is nothing like the royal blue of an indigo bunting. In the Northeast, they arrive fashionably late to the spring fling, behind the vanguard of migrating warblers and other songbirds.
On my morning walk in my frequent birding spot – my “patch” as birders call it – I heard the sharp double-noted tune: “Look! Look! What! What! Where! Where! See it! See it!” I peered into my binoculars and found a male indigo bunting perched on a sprawling limb of a red oak. [Read more…] about The Indigo Bunting: A Celestial Creature
As the frost line retreats northward in the early spring, its withdrawal is often closely followed – and occasionally preceded – by the arrival of our most common flycatcher: the eastern phoebe. In fact, depending on where you live, you may already have one nesting above your front door. [Read more…] about Eastern Phoebes: The Early Bird Gets the Nest
In February 2025, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) wildlife staff received a report of a Bald Eagle banded in New York that was photographed alive and well in the state of Georgia. This bird was rescued as a hatch-year male from the nearshore waters of Lake Erie in Chautauqua County in May of 2021, likely having fledged from a nearby clifftop nest. [Read more…] about A Banded Bald Eagle Makes An Epic Journey
Northern pintails (Anas acuta) are dabbling ducks, feeding on the surface of the water by filtering out seeds and insects. They nest on the ground in open habitats like unwooded wetlands, grasslands or tundra, relying on camouflaged plumage to protect their eggs. [Read more…] about Northern Pintails: Incredible Fliers
Walking along a dirt road last winter, I heard a collection of pleasant, sputtering trills coming from a stand of conifers and hardwoods nearby.
I’m used to the winter conversation of chickadees around feeder and woods, the cawing of crows and blue jays in the yard, and the high-pitched calls of golden-crowned kinglets sounding from the trees in winter – but I didn’t recognize this sound. [Read more…] about Bohemian Waxwings: Intrepid Winter Wanderers
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