Birding Festivals in the Adirondacks:
2014 Great Adirondack Birding Celebration
Teddy Roosevelt Birding Challenge

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Boreal Birds of the Adirondacks: Common Merganser from the Barnum Brook Trail overlook (17 May 2013)

6 June 2014, 4:00 - 5:00 PM
Free

The Teddy Roosevelt Birding Challenge is our variation on traditional birdathons.  Most birdathons are fund-raisers, in which participants form teams in advance and obtain pledges from sponsors. 

Our Adirondack-style birdathon is just for fun, with no entry fee or pledges.  The event is free; both Great Adirondack Birding Celebration attendees and other interested birders can participate.  Participants form teams of two or more who are challenged to roam the VIC property for 45 minutes in search of as many bird species as possible for one set time period on Friday, 6 June. 

We do have a few rules:

• Team members must register at the VIC desk, where they pick up a copy of the VIC bird list. 
• Team members must bird together.
• All team members must hear or see the bird.
• Teams must not use recordings to call birds or induce them to respond.
• Watches are synchronized in advance.  Teams returning late are penalized a bird for each minute late. 

The results are submitted to a non-participant for counting.  The team with the most birds wins the “golden nest award.” 

We call the event the Teddy Roosevelt Birding Challenge because of Roosevelt's association with the Paul Smiths area.  Roosevelt, an avid naturalist, visited the region as a boy of thirteen in 1871, when he stayed at Paul Smith's Hotel, went camping on St. Regis River, and climbed St. Regis Mountain.  Later, in collaboration with his friend H.D. Minot, he compiled a list of 97 species seen during three other trips to the region: in August 1874, August 1875, and 22 June to 9 July 1877: The summer birds of the Adirondacks in Franklin County.

Teams competing in the Teddy Roosevelt Birding Challenge have a variety of habitats to choose from in the area immediately surrounding the VIC building. One convenient birding hot spot is the VIC parking lot.  Birds typically seen here at this time of year include:

Red-Breasted Nuthatch	Red-eyed Vireo
Yellow-rumped Warbler	American Robin
Winter Wren	Northern Parula
Northern Flicker	Ovenbird
Blue Jay	American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee	Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Blue-headed Vireo	Hairy Woodpecker

Heron Marsh provides an opportunity to identify birds who live on or near marshland.  The quickest way to access Heron Marsh is the first overlook on the Barnum Brook Trail or the elevated platform on the Heron Marsh Trail.  Both are about a five minute walk from the VIC building. Species typically  seen on Heron Marsh at this time of year include:

Red-eyed Vireo	Black-capped Chickadee
Ovenbird	Alder Flycatcher
Palm Warbler	American Crow
Nashville Warbler	Winter Wren
Red-shouldered Hawk	Swamp Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird	White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow	Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Brown Creeper	Blue-headed Vireo
American Bittern	Great Blue Heron
Black-throated Green Warbler	Yellow-rumped Warbler

Barnum Bog offers an opportunity to see boreal species that live on or near bogs.  The bog can be accessed from a boardwalk on the Boreal Life Trail – about a ten minute walk from the VIC building.  Bird species which have been seen on or near the bog at this time of year include:

Black-throated Green Warbler	Ovenbird
Blackburnian Warbler	American Robin
Nashville Warbler	Palm Warbler
Song Sparrow	Broad-winged Hawk
Red-Breasted Nuthatch	White-throated Sparrow
Alder Flycatcher	Olive-sided Flycatcher
Winter Wren	Merlin
Black-capped Chickadee	Hermit Thrush
Black-backed Woodpecker	Gray Jay
Northern Flicker	Northern Parula
Red-eyed Vireo	Yellow-rumped Warbler

Sources:

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. The summer birds of the Adirondacks in Franklin County, N.Y. Accessed 1 February 2014.  This typescript is a catalog of birds observed primarily around the Saint Regis Lakes in the Adirondack Mountains between 1874 and 1877.

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919. Diaries and notebooks, 1868-1914. Notes on the Fauna of the Adirondac Mts. MS Am 1454.31. Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Accessed 1 February 2014. This hand-written notebook contains material on 100 birds, 25 mammals, 5 reptiles, and 10 amphibians. The data were collected during visits to the Adirondack area: July 1871, August 1874, August 1875, and June-July 1877.  The material on birds can be found on pages 15-51.

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919. Diaries and notebooks, 1868-1914. Field book of zoology. MS Am 1454.38. Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Accessed 1 February 2014. This hand-written notebook contains material on observations made during several trips from 1876 to 1879.  The material on observations made near St. Regis Lake in 1877 can be found on pages 139-170.

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919. Diaries and notebooks, 1868-1914. MS Am 1454.55 (7). Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Accessed 1 February 2014. This hand-written travel diary details Roosevelt's August 1877 trip to the Adirondacks and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  The material on Paul Smiths and St. Regis can be found on pages 7-20.

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919. Diaries and notebooks, 1868-1914. MS Am 1454.55 (9). Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Accessed 1 February 2014.This hand-written travel diary details Roosevelt's August 1871 trip to the Adirondacks and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, including visits to Lake George, Plattsburg, Lake Placid, North Conway, Worcester, New Haven, and other locations.  The material on St. Regis Lake can be found on pages 86-89.