Seaway Trail looks for more bird-watchers
'WORLD CLASS' | Local group hopes to up popularity of scenic N.Y. byway
HILTON, N.Y. -- Greg Lawrence crashed through the underbrush, eyes wide, binoculars swinging from his neck.
"Worm-eating Warbler! Worm-eating Warbler! That's a lifer for me," he called to the group of birders he was leading on a woodland trek near Lake Ontario. "Wow. Whew. That made my day. I just got my bins on it before it flew away."
Lawrence, something of a birding prodigy at age 15 with 305 species already on his life list, explained that the Worm-eating Warbler is a rare sight so far north. The wayward warbler is just one of myriad species of songbirds, shorebirds, raptors and waterfowl along the shores of Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River and Lake Erie, a region known as the Seaway Trail.
While avid birders have long flocked to the region, particularly during the spring and fall migration, many people are unaware of the avian bounty here.
Local birding groups and Seaway Trail, Inc., a nonprofit tourism organization, are working to change that through a yearlong series of events promoting the region as a prime birding destination.
"We're trying to make people aware of the world-class birding opportunities along the Seaway Trail, particularly along the southern shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario," said ornithologist Gerry Smith, president of the Onondaga Audubon Society in Syracuse. "We're working on a birding guidebook and accompanying CD and holding special events throughout the year to promote the exceptional ornithological resources within a few hours of the major cities of the Northeast."
The 518-mile Seaway Trail, a national scenic byway, features a wide variety of bird habitats, many of which are highlighted with 17 new educational kiosks erected this summer. An exhibit at the Seaway Trail's headquarters in Sackets Harbor provides an introduction to birding in the region and maps and brochures detailing birding hot spots.
Some of the birding hot spots along the Seaway Trail include:
u Braddock Bay, on Lake Ontario a few miles northwest of Rochester, where hawk watchers recorded nearly 63,000 migrating raptors this spring and volunteers band nearly 10,000 birds a year.
u Derby Hill, 30 miles north of Syracuse, where tens of thousands of migrating hawks pass overhead as they follow the edge of Lake Ontario.
u Little Galloo Island, 60 miles north of Syracuse, home to the world's largest Ring-billed Gull colony.
u The Niagara Gorge, winter home to at least 18 species of gulls as well as terns, ducks, hawks and falcons.
Bill Purcell has been a volunteer hawk-counter for 25 years at Derby Hill. He has seen days when the sky was filled with as many as 20,000 raptors a day.
Spring is the best time to see birds in their bright breeding plumage, Smith said. In summer, there's a great diversity of breeding birds. Whippoorwills, which have been declining elsewhere, flourish in the Indian River Lakes region a few miles inland from the St. Lawrence River, he said.
But you don't have to be an avid birder toting a $3,000 spotting scope to enjoy the avian riches of vacation spots such as Cape May and the Seaway Trail.
"Most shore communities don't have a world-class birding location in their backyard," said Pete Dunne, author of seven bird books. "Even casual birdwatchers can go to the hawk watch platform for a few hours or join a morning bird walk before they head out to the boardwalk or the beach."
AP