Birding Festivals in the Adirondacks:
2016 Great Adirondack Birding Celebration
Whiteface Mountain Field Trip
Bicknell's Thrush on Whiteface Mountain. Photo by Larry Master. www.masterimages.org
| This site is no longer being updated with current information on birding activities at the VIC. For current information on the events planned for the 2017 Great Adirondack Birding Celebration, visit: http://www.paulsmiths.edu/vic/gabc/schedule/. For information on birding in the Adirondacks, visit: Adirondack Wildlife: Birds of the Adirondacks. |
- Time: Saturday, 4 June, 7:00 AM and Sunday, 5 June, 7:00 AM
- Price: $40 per person plus $10 for the Whiteface Mountain Toll Road Fee. $36 for Friends of the VIC or Northern New York Audubon members. $20 for Friends of the VIC Warblers. Each field trip is limited to 20 participants. This trip fills up very quickly. Please register early. A signed NYS ORDA waiver is also required on day of trip.
- Where to Meet: TBA
- What to Bring: Gear for a short day trip: hat, binoculars, sunscreen, snack, water, rain gear, insect repellent
Boreal Birds of the Adirondacks: Magnolia Warbler on Whiteface Mountain.
Photo by Larry Master. www.masterimages.org.
Used by permission.
This is the trip to take if your goal is to see the Bicknell's Thrush. The upper reaches of Whiteface Mountain are home to a population of this rare songbird. The species breeds in high elevation conifer forests, primarily above 3000 feet. The Bicknell's Thrush is among the most rare and probably most threatened species in North America. Fewer than 100,000 exist in the wild. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently reviewing the status of this species to determine if it should be listed as federally endangered or threatened. Nearly a quarter of the nesting habitat of the Bicknell's Thrush is in the dense spruce forests near Adirondack mountaintops. Whiteface Mountain, with about a thousand acres of suitable Bicknell's Thrush breeding habitat, is one of the biggest and most important sites. The field trip to Whiteface Mountain, the easiest place to see the species anywhere in its small northeastern range, provides an opportunity to see and hear this bird.
The trip will begin with a flat, easy walk around Lake Stevens Tree Trail at the Whiteface Mountain Memorial Highway toll house. The Lake Stevens Tree Trail offers a self-guided, 10-minute walk around the pond. All 34 species of trees native to the northern Adirondacks (14 conifer and 20 hardwoods) can be found on this short nature trail.
Then participants will carpool up the toll road, stopping at some of the nine pull-offs and searching for boreal birds. Whiteface Mountain is an eBird Birding Hotspot. In addition to the Bicknell's Thrush, other species seen here in past field trips include: