Attend the Inaugural Finger Lakes Birding Festival

With their voices, plumage, colors and antics, birds invite us to more deeply connect with nature as we learn about them and the ecosystems they inhabit. On the shores of a glacial lake in the Finger Lakes Region, Yale Manor is under one of the most active migratory bird flight lanes in the Atlantic Flyway. Encompassing some of the hemisphere’s most productive forested and wetland ecosystems, the Flyway stretches from the Canadian arctic and northern Atlantic Coast to the Caribbean and South America. Hundreds of species of birds regularly migrate along the Flyway.

Beginning on Thursday, March 26th through Sunday, March 29th, The Montezuma Audubon Center, Braddock Bay Raptor Research, Sterling Nature Center and Onondaga Audubon are hosting the Inaugural Finger Lakes Birding Festival. Attend demonstrations, lectures and workshops and take birding tours and nature walks to see dozens of waterfowl and raptor species. Events will take place at a number of locations:

• Montezuma Wetlands, a resting, feeding and nesting refuge for over 240 species of waterfowl and other migratory birds, the Wetlands are also home to 43 species of mammals, 15 species of reptiles and 16 species of amphibians. Several Bald Eagle nests can be viewed in the Complex and hatching occurs around mid-April.
• Braddock Bay, a shallow water bay-marsh, is a sanctuary for puddle ducks, particularly mallards, blue-winged teal and wood ducks. During migration, all waterfowl common to the Atlantic Flyway utilize the area including scarce species such as brant, Barrow's goldeneye and the Harlequin duck.
• Sterling Nature Center, a diverse natural habitat for wildlife and plants which encompasses 1,400 acres of forest, wetlands, meadows, creeks and vernal ponds, features glacially-formed bluffs with scenic vistas of Lake Ontario.
• Onondaga Lake, covering 4.6 square miles, has an average depth of 35 feet and a maximum depth of 63 feet. After many years of dedicated research and remediation, Onondaga Lake, once known as “America’s most polluted lake”, is now the cleanest it has been in over a century. As a result, its plant and animal health and diversity have made impressive progress.

Registration for the Festival is required and tickets are available at the Montezuma Audubon website.

In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence. ― Robert Lynd