One of the best-kept secrets here in the Niagara Region is the annual Allegany Nature Pilgrimage sponsored by the Buffalo, Jamestown and Presque Isle Audubon Societies and the Burroughs Audubon Nature Club of Rochester. I lived in Buffalo for more than 15 years before I knew of this wonderful opportunity.

Learning about the Geology of Allegany State Park at Thunder Rocks.

This secret is unfortunate because I consider this by far the best natural history activity of each year. The pilgrimage is a family event with dozens of activities for children and adults going on every minute from dawn until well after dark over a three-day period. This year it will be held from May 31 to June 2.

To give some sense of the range of activities, I will take you through my own experiences on a recent pilgrimage. Although the program differs each year, many of its main features remain constant.

I arrive on Friday morning in time to check in and obtain my cabin assignment at the Allegany Park headquarters. Given a choice of hikes, I join entomologist Wayne Gall for one of the longer walks along the Beehunter Trail. Our 20 hikers share experiences along the way, and Gall points out dozens of species of wildflowers, trees, ferns and insects. At one point, we stop to listen to a hooded warbler and suddenly the beautiful little bird flies to a nearby tree to inspect us. For several minutes, all I hear are oohs and aahs and camera clicks.

The evening program in the big tent is about wolves, and Paul Schnell has brought his own wolf for each of us to see and even pet briefly. Unlike most dogs, this handsome animal displays no response to our touch.

An Eastern Screech Owl might be seen on the Owl Prowl. Photo by Tom Poczciwinski.

The day is not yet done. I join a car caravan heading out on an owl prowl. At stops along the way, we hear screech, great horned and barred owls. Our group leader, Chuck Rosenburg, calls in the barred owls and we are able to observe them in our flashlight beams. It is hard to tell if the noisy owls are hooting at each other or at us.

The next morning before breakfast, I help Jay Wopperer lead a bird walk for a number of other early risers. We identify perhaps 30 species, including an osprey flying across Red House Lake. Morgan Jones points out a brown creeper nest under the bark of a pine tree.

Having completed my responsibility for the day, after breakfast I first visit Bob McKinney’s bird banding station. Youngsters crowd around him, some having an opportunity to hold birds briefly in their hands.

Later I visit Dick Christensen’s inexpensive used book sale and then join Tim Baird for another bird hike.

Pilgrimage Participant handles a remarkably docile Milk Snake.

In the afternoon, I audit a herpetology class. First, everyone has an opportunity to handle a remarkably docile milk snake. Then the group walks to a stony creek bed and the dozen children are asked to find, catch and bring in a frog or salamander. I am amazed at the number of different species these youngsters show us, including a rare Wehrle’s salamander.

Supper is a chicken dinner and an opportunity to share our day’s experiences. Afterward, we all again head for the big tent where we are entertained by a Pennsylvania conservation department officer who visits bear dens to obtain information about their status. His experiences are both exciting and humorous. He tells, for example, about his dad watching him crawl into a cave where a bear was hibernating. After a few minutes, a half-awake bear appeared at the cave entrance. The father’s first thoughts were, “Has this huge bear eaten my son?”

Another owl prowl ends the day.

Sunday morning starts as a repeat of Saturday. As we are watching birds in a woodlot, one of our participants points out a perfectly camouflaged fawn curled silently on the ground just a few feet from us.

Indian Cucumber Root often blooms at Pilgrimage time.

I attend a wildflower identification program and a geology trip to Thunder Rocks in the morning and finally head home at noon.

I urge you not to miss this year’s pilgrimage. For information visit www.alleganynaturepilgrimage.com.  The online registration deadline has past, but fear not!  You can register and pay with cash or check at the Pilgrimage registration table.

This article is reprinted with permission.  It originally appeared in The Buffalo News on May 5, 2013.  Gerry Rising is Professor Emeritus at the University of Buffalo Graduate School of Education.  He has been the Nature Watch columnist at The Buffalo News since 1991.

email: insrisg@buffalo.edu

Jamestown, NY – With species of animals not found anywhere else in the world, the Galapagos Islands, 600 miles west of Ecuador, hold a fascination for anyone interested in the natural world.

“Galápagos Islands and Florida: Birds and Wildlife Photography” will be the subject of Lee Stein’s presentation at the Audubon Center & Sanctuary’s next First Friday Lunch Bunch on June 7. He will share photos and stories about of the birds and wildlife from a recent trip to the Galapagos Islands, as well as from the Virea Wetlands and Merritt Island Preserve of Central Florida.

At the Audubon Center & Sanctuary’s next First Friday Lunch Bunch, Lee Stein will give a presentation on “Galápagos Islands and Florida: Birds and Wildlife Photography.” The event is on Friday, June 7, at 11 a.m.

Stein, a Lakewood resident who winters in Florida, will discuss and present photos of the birds and wildlife from a recent trip to the Galapagos Islands, as well as from the Virea Wetlands and Merritt Island Preserve of Central Florida

Visiting Ecuador, Stein spent a week in the Amazon then seven nights on a small ship at the Galapagos Islands. Activities included taking guided trips to the islands, snorkeling, and photographing the unique birds and wildlife.

Stein says he has always had a fascination with nature and a need to be outside. His interest in photography began in the 1970s and was nurtured by several courses in film photography at Jamestown Community College.  With the purchase of a DSLR camera, he joined the digital era and is a member of the Camera Club of Brevard (County, Florida).  Mentored by an avian photographer, Stein considers himself to be fortunate to live near several avian wetlands.

Following the program, coffee and tea will be provided for a BYO brown bag lunch. The fee for attending is $7 or $5 for Friends of the Nature Center. Reservations are not required.

The Audubon Center and Sanctuary is at 1600 Riverside Road, one-quarter mile east of Route 62 between Jamestown and Warren.

For more information, call (716) 569-2345 or visit www.jamestownaudubon.org.

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Jamestown, NY – The Audubon Center & Sanctuary is offering a unique opportunity for teenagers to hone their skills.

From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday through Friday, June 25-28, Audubon is presenting Counselor Camp for youth ages 13-18.

At the Audubon Center & Sanctuary’s Counselor Camp, teenagers will learn everything they need to know to be an Audubon, or other, camp counselor. One of their lessons will be the proper way to handle wildlife and release back to the wild, as this teen is handing off a bird.

This camp is all about learning everything you need to know to be an Audubon, or other, camp counselor. The trainees will have fun playing games, hiking, exploring, and learning how to be the best camp counselors ever.

The camp is designed to hone the leadership skills of youth who are interested in assisting with Audubon Day Camp, but the experience will apply to any camp. In addition to learning the specifics about what goes on at Audubon camp, participants will also learn about the important soft skills that make a responsible and desirable employee.

Through games and teambuilding activities, lessons and projects, the Audubon staff intends to create a corps of Audubon Junior Counselors that are well trained, knowledgeable, and the envy of every business in Chautauqua County.

Campers are reminded to dress for the weather, and dress appropriately. They need to bring a lunch and water bottle, and a change of clothes could be a good idea.

Camp size is limited to 24. Fee is $90 or free if already signed up to be a camp counselor for Audubon 2013.

Reservations with deposit are required by Saturday, June 1, by calling (716) 569-2345, emailing info@jamestownaudubon.org, or clicking on the Program Listing link at http://jamestownaudubon.org/.

The Audubon Center and Sanctuary is at 1600 Riverside Road, one-quarter mile east of Route 62 between Jamestown and Warren. Hours for the Nature Center are 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and Sundays 1-4:30 p.m. Liberty, Audubon’s non-releasable bald eagle, welcomes visitors daily from dawn to dusk in her outdoor pen. The Sanctuary’s more than five miles of beautifully maintained trails are also open daily.

For more information, call (716) 569-2345 or visit http://jamestownaudubon.org/.

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We are taught that little actions can cause a big reaction, but that isn’t always the case. How do you maintain faith that your little actions make a difference? I recycle, I reuse, I move turtles off the road, plant native plants, put up birdhouses, turn off my lights and buy organic milk. I grow some of my own food, I drive reasonably so as not to waste gas, I use a clothesline to dry clothes, and turn the water off when I brush my teeth. So what?

It is easy to get disenchanted. It is easy to be cynical or not care. Caring about the state of the world is like caring for a foster child, sometimes you just want to throw your hands in the air and say “What freaking difference can I possibly make?! This is impossible! And it is too dang hard.” That is where the faith part comes in. It is about trust, and believing, and hope. Intangible things that you never, ever see but can be felt deeply and viscerally.

The faith that your actions make a difference is not really different than believing in fairies or ghosts. There may be evidence to support the existence of those things, or it may all be hogwash. There is no evidence that says they don’t exist. Some believe, some don’t. Research shows that individual actions, when multiplied by many individuals, do make a difference. Therein lies the catch – others must be acting in the same manner as you for your actions to matter.

Honeybees work together for the good of the hive. – photo by Jeff Tome

One honeybee worker, doing her job, will never matter alone. She will never be able to clean the entire hive, take care of the babies, or gather pollen and nectar to feed everyone… never. One will never make a difference. But with hundreds of workers, all doing the same thing, identical jobs, then the hive flourishes and all are better for each one’s work.

I imagine honeybees don’t have faith – their brains seem designed for purpose and that alone. They don’t think about what they do, they just do it. Humans have the luxury of purposeless thoughts; this luxury gives us many things, including faith and doubt, which seem to go hand and hand. We also begin to define and think about concepts such as self, altruism and egoism. We evaluate and ponder and question and challenge and doubt. A simple fact remains, however. With incredibly few exceptions, humans need other humans beyond their immediate family to survive and thrive.

Like honeybees serving their queen, humans acting on behalf of the planet are serving an idea. The idea is simple and ancient; if everyone does a little bit to take care of the home, family, land, water and air that support them (the commons), then everyone will be better off. I’m not going to delve into happiness or its definition, causes, or tragedy. But from a biological standpoint, humans are healthier if their support system is healthy. We are stronger if we work together.

Audubon volunteers assist with roadside cleanup.

Hard to see sometimes. Harder to accept at other times. For whatever reason, it seems increasingly difficult to trust other humans. I can’t pinpoint why, and I’m sure everyone has a theory. But trust is waning. With that loss is a fading faith. And doubt follows closely on the heels of that decline. It then becomes easy to slip into mistrust – it is easier, far easier, to point fingers, blame, get angry, give up, and disagree. “He doesn’t recycle, why should I? It is just a groundhog, you don’t need to screech to a halt. Other people eat meat from factory farms, they’re fine. Organic milk is expensive, why should I bother?” And so on. It is easy to not care.

If you have no faith in others, you can’t have faith in yourself. And if you don’t trust your own actions, it makes it impossible to trust others. Taking care of the planet, acting on behalf of something you can’t ever see in its entirety, hoping for results that you may never witness, creating a better world for living things you will never meet, imagine, or touch, is an act of faith. Believing is hard. Caring is hard. Really, really hard. You will fall on your knees and weep. Your heart will break and you will hurt in eternal places. You will throw silent and angry whys into the atmosphere. You will sit, broken and hopeless, and wonder if caring can possibly be worth it. There seems to be no purpose, no reason.

Bald Eagles are no longer listed as an endangered species. Photo by Angus Watkins

And then, a hatchling turtle pushes its way out of the soil and crosses your path. A phoebe nests and raises her chicks on a platform that you put out just for her. A child says “I never knew carrots were a root!” as you pull one from your carefully tended garden. A report comes across your desk that shows consumers are demanding more fuel efficient cars. The local trash collection agency accepts even more things that can be recycled. More things are being made from recycled materials. Legislation is passed to curb mountain-top removal. The Bald Eagle population recovers to a point where it is no longer endangered or threatened. The world, including you, benefits from the collective action of individuals.

Along my lifetime there have been moments of faith and moments of desperate prayer. Humans have such power in this world and over each other. It is hard to trust that we all pull our weight. But when we do, and when we trust that others are doing the little things that we are, the results exceed expectations. Each little worker bee does a little job, and the world gets better for it. And that alone is what keeps me believing.

Sarah Hatfield is a naturalist at Audubon.

For an opportunity to be surrounded by planet-loving people, attend the Allegany Nature Pilgrimage! It is happening May 31, June 1-2. More information can be found at http://www.alleganynaturepilgrimage.com or by calling (716) 569-2345. Audubon is located at 1600 Riverside Road between Warren and Jamestown. The trails are open from dawn to dusk and the Center from 10:00am-4:30pm daily except Sunday when we open at 1:00pm.  Visit http://jamestownaudubon.org for more information.

Jamestown, NY – The Jamestown Audubon Education Staff has announced the winner of the 2013 Ryan Exline Memorial Scholarship.

Every year the Education Staff raises funds for this $500 scholarship through their Fledgling Birdathon team’s daylong birding efforts. The recipient must be a local resident pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in the natural sciences and be passionate about the natural world.

Lakewood, New York, resident Allison Cramer is the 2013 recipient of Jamestown Audubon’s Ryan Exline Memorial Scholarship. She is pictured here (right) receiving her scholarship check from Audubon naturalist Sarah Hatfield.

The 2013 scholarship is being awarded to Allison Cramer of Lakewood, New York. A student at Jamestown Community College, Allison has been accepted into the State University of New York College of Environmental Science & Forestry in Syracuse, where she plans to earn a degree in conservation biology.

In her application, Allison noted that she wants “future generations to be able to make their own memories, to experience the beauty of the natural world, to gasp in awe at nature’s breathtaking moments, and to strike a passion into the younger generation for the Earth as it was made to be seen.”

This award has been named the Ryan Exline Memorial Scholarship in honor of the young man who was an integral part of the Jamestown Audubon family for many years. The 22-year-old died in 2008 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.

Previous scholarship winners include Alex Kulakowski, Elyse Johnson, Brenton Maille, Alyssa D’Alessandro, Alexa Vazquez, Tricia Bergstue, Karen Eckstrom, Bill Langworthy, Rex Everett, Ryan Exline, and Eve Gaus.

The Audubon Center and Sanctuary is at 1600 Riverside Road, one-quarter mile east of Route 62 between Jamestown and Warren. Hours for the Nature Center are 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and Sundays 1-4:30 p.m. Liberty, Audubon’s non-releasable bald eagle, welcomes visitors daily from dawn to dusk in her outdoor pen. The Sanctuary’s more than five miles of beautifully maintained trails are also open daily.

For more information, call (716) 569-2345 or visit http://jamestownaudubon.org/.

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Jamestown, NY – With the arrival of spring, now could be the time you take the picture that wins a prize in the Jamestown Audubon Nature Photography Contest.

With the arrival of spring, now could be the time you take the picture that wins a prize in the Jamestown Audubon Nature Photography Contest. Shown here is the 2012 winner in the Adult Plants category: “Wild Oats” by Ricardo Gilson of Meadville, Pennsylvania.

The contest, presented by the Audubon Center & Sanctuary of Jamestown, New York, awards prizes in three categories and two divisions. The Youth Division is for ages 8-18 or still in high school; Adult is 18 and over or post-high school. Youth and Adult winners in the categories of Landscapes, Plants, and Wildlife each receive a $100 cash prize and free photo finishing.

With entries being submitted on-line, the competition has attracted international attention, receiving submissions from around the world.

The 2012 winners were:

• Adult Wildlife: Gerald Wilders (Toms River, NJ), “Leaping for Prey”
• Adult Plants: Ricardo Gilson (Meadville, PA), “Wild Oats”
• Adult Landscape: Patty Raydo (Fairview, PA), “Big Sur at Sunset”
• Youth Wildlife: Brandon Abranovic (Scottsdale, AZ), “Sneaking Through”
• Youth Plants: Mayla Mahoney (Enosburg Falls, VT), “Water World”
• Youth Landscape: Hope Harrington (Lompoc, CA), “Mountain Reflection”

Contest entry deadline is June 30, 2013. Images of winning entries from the 2011 and 2012 contests as well as details for the 2013 competition are on-line at http://jasphotocontest.com/.

The Jamestown Audubon Nature Photography Contest is sponsored by Main Street Photo of Bowling Green, Ohio (http://bgmainstreetphoto.com/).

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Jamestown, NY – If you’re wondering what to do this Saturday (May 18, 2013) in celebration of spring, you need look no further than the possibilities being offered by the Audubon Center & Sanctuary.

Between 7:00 and 11:00 a.m. you can watch birds being captured, banded, and released. This is your last opportunity this spring to accompany scientists on net checks and watch them weigh, measure, collect data, and photograph the birds.  If you are lucky, you will be selected to help release a bird!

When you visit the Audubon Center & Sanctuary this Saturday (May 18, 2013) to watch bird banding or participate in the Plant Exchange and Sale, be sure to visit the pollinator garden created by local Eagle Scout Adam Carlson. Adam is shown here working on the new garden.

You can stop by the Plant Exchange and Sale any time from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Bring some of your own potted plants to exchange or support Audubon by purchasing plants. A focus this year will be to provide information and displays on pollinator gardens and other eco-friendly gardens. Audubon has a pollinator display, and you won’t want to miss the new pollinator garden created by local Eagle Scout, Adam Carlson.

The Audubon Center and Sanctuary is at 1600 Riverside Road, one-quarter mile east of Route 62 between Jamestown, New York, and Warren, Pennsylvania.

If you want to travel a little further, from 1:00-3:00 p.m. you can enjoy a Wildflower Walk with Jon Titus of the SUNY College at Fredonia at the College Lodge in Brocton, New York. This is the next-to-last of Audubon’s Wildflower Series of classes and field trips.

Though donations are appreciated for the bird banding, there is no admission charge for it or the Plant Exchange. Cost of the Wildflower Walk is $14, $10 for Friends of the Nature Center; reservations are appreciated by calling (716) 569-2345, emailing info@jamestownaudubon.org, or clicking on the Program Listing link at http://jamestownaudubon.org/. (Thanks to a grant from the Cornell Cooperative Extension, the cost of the remaining May 22 class and May 25 field trip is $7 each; $5/Friends of the Nature Center.)

If you prefer staying at home on Saturday, you are invited to participate in Audubon’s Birdathon II by counting birds in your own backyard on Saturday and Sunday, then reporting the number of species you saw.

For more information on the Birdathon and all these opportunities, call (716) 569-2345 or visit http://jamestownaudubon.org/.

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Jamestown, NY – With participants coming from as far away as Texas for the weekend, the 55^th Allegany Nature Pilgrimage promises to be worth the trip.

The Splash Hike led by Lon Myers of West Chester, Pennsylvania, is a regular feature at the Allegany Nature Pilgrimage, this year planned for Friday-Sunday, May 31-June 2. The amazing outdoor weekend at Allegany State Park is organized by volunteers from the Audubon organizations of Buffalo, Erie, Jamestown, and Rochester.

Hundreds of eager participants will gather for this annual outdoor learning experience on Friday-Sunday, May 31-June 2, at Camp Allegany in the Red House area of New York’s Allegany State Park. The park’s cabins and campsites provide a home for many, while others commute from home or prefer local motels.

Dozens of knowledgable outdoor enthusiasts will lead hikes and field trips, offer classes and workshops, and present programs and demonstrations. Their topics will range from trees, flowers, ferns, insects, birds, salamanders, reptiles, tracks, mammals, geology, astronomy, and ecology, to yoga, paper-making, photography, sketching, and nature games. Participants are welcome to just relax, visit, or hike, as well.

The park abounds with wildlife, and it is not uncommon to see deer, porcupines, raccoons, and the occasional black bear. There are also incredible numbers of wildflowers, birds, butterflies and tress.

Volunteers from the Burroughs Audubon Nature Club and the Buffalo, Jamestown, and Presque Isle Audubon Societies organize the annual outing.

To register and for more information about the Allegany Nature Pilgrimage, visit http://alleganynaturepilgrimage.com.

Reservations at the Red House area of Allegany State Park can be made from http://nysparks.com/parks/73/details.aspx, or at http://www.reserveamerica.com/, or by calling 1-800-456-CAMP.

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Jamestown, NY – It’s not too late to learn about wildflowers this spring at the Audubon Center & Sanctuary’s Wildflower Series.

White Trillium is one of the many species of wildflowers you can find in the northeast woods. You can learn about spring wildflowers at the remaining classes and walks of the Audubon Center & Sanctuary wildflower series. (Photo by Jeff Tome)

Enthusiasts have been enjoying Wednesday evening classes and Saturday afternoon walks since the beginning of the month.

Wednesday classes and Saturday field trips remaining are:

• May 15 class, Wildflower Basics: Spring flowers race for the sun.  Learn all about wildflower biology from the biology expert!  Instructor: Becky Nystrom.
• May 18 field trip, College Lodge, Brocton, NY: There will be a variety of spring ephemeral wildflowers such as spring beauty, trilliums, toothworts, wild leek, bloodroot, mayapple, trout lily and a number of other species depending upon the weather.  There will also be some non-flowering clubmosses. Instructor: Jon Titus
• May 22 class, Wild Edibles: Many wildflowers and their parts can be used as food.  Katie Finch will introduce you to some common wild edibles.
• May 25 field trip, Wild Edibles of Bergman Park, Jamestown, NY: Eat your way through this amazing park that is so much more than baseball fields.  Katie Finch will lead you onto the hidden trails and byways in search of wild things to munch.

Field trips will meet at their locations. The maps on Audubon’s website, http://jamestownaudubon.org/, can be used to create customized directions.

Walk participants are reminded to dress for the weather.

Class and walk leaders for the series are Audubon staffers Jeff Tome, Senior Naturalist, Jennifer Schlick, Program Director, and Katie Finch, teacher naturalist, and biology professors Becky Nystrom from Jamestown Community College and Jon Titus from SUNY Fredonia.

Classes are limited to 50 people and field trips to 25.

Normal cost of the classes and field trips is $14 each; $10/Friends of the Nature Center. Thanks to a grant from the Cornell Cooperative Extension, the cost of the May 22 class and May 25 field trip is $7 each; $5/Friends of the Nature Center.

Reservations for individual events are requested Mondays prior to classes and Thursdays prior to field trips. They can be made by calling (716) 569-2345, emailing info@jamestownaudubon.org, or clicking on the Program Listing link at http://jamestownaudubon.org/.

The Audubon Center and Sanctuary is at 1600 Riverside Road, one-quarter mile off Route 62 between Jamestown and Warren. Center hours are 10 am-4:30 pm daily, Sundays 1-4:30 pm. The trails, gardens, and Bald Eagle viewing are open dawn to dusk.  To learn more, call (716) 569-2345 or visit http://jamestownaudubon.org/.

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Pretty nerdy, right?

I’m a nerd, I’ll freely admit to it. In an ordinary year, I would have spent May 4 watching Star Wars. (Because, you know- May the fourth be with you. Get it?) I would have quoted along with Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader alike, feigned surprise at the big reveal, and cheered when the second Death Star was finally destroyed. But this year, instead of curling up on the couch to shout about what exactly was or was not in the original trilogy, I decided to spend the day with birders, the nerds of the naturalist community.

Among naturalists, there is definitely a curious divide between birders and the rest of us. Birds are without a doubt one of the hardest specialties a naturalist can choose. By some estimates there are as many as 455 species of birds found in New York State alone. (Compare that to around 150 species of trees‎ or 70 species of reptiles and amphibians combined.) What’s more, birds are notoriously hard to keep track of in the field. One minute they’re sitting in a bush, then they’re hopping on the ground, and by the time you’ve gotten your binoculars up and adjusted them to the right depth of field, the bird has flown off. As a birder, you have to know which birds are year-round and which ones are only here in the summer. You have to be able to tell a winter molt from a summer molt, a juvenile from an adult, and a male from a female. Most birders can also identify a bird by sound alone. Some can tell you what kind of nest each bird builds and what kind of eggs it lays.

And yet, birders carry on. Some do it out of professional interests or obligations, but many more are amateur birders, that is to say, hobbyists. 51.3 million people in the United States are birders, making it the biggest “sport” in the country. They go out into the field at the crack of dawn. They strap on binoculars in suspender-like contraptions and spend hours peering through them hopefully, looking for that once-in-a-lifetime rare species. They strain their ears to listen for a call, and thumb through dog-eared field guides or bookmarked birding apps, and crane their necks to stare at birds flying hundreds of feet up in the air. And they do these things for fun.

Scholarship winner Allison Cramer (right) checks off birds while her friend and fellow JCC student David looks on.

On May 4, though, we were birding for a cause. Every year, Audubon hosts a Birdathon to raise money for the Ryan Exline Memorial Scholarship, awarded to a high school or college student intending to major in the environmental or biological sciences. The winner goes birding with Audubon staff and volunteers, earning money from a variety of generous donors for every species the group can identify. This year’s winner was Allison Cramer, a sophomore at JCC, who plans to transfer next year to SUNY ESF, the College of Environmental Science and Forestry. There, she will major in conservation biology.

Allison seemed to be having a good time, although it was clear that she was not quite as interested in birding as some of those present.

I felt for her. After all, birding is no more her intended specialty than it is mine. I don’t think she’d ever actually been birding before. I have been birding before, and I was a little overwhelmed. We started at 6:30 in the morning, and kept at it until about 3:00 in the afternoon; we had already exhausted all the species I knew by about 8:00. Sometimes it even felt like a contest to see who could identify the most birds, or who could identify a new bird the fastest. People debated about calls (“Do you think that was more of a “paaant” or a “psshht”?) that sounded increasingly similar to me. I was the first person to identify exactly one bird (the White-breasted Nuthatch), and really I only got there first because everyone else had their backs turned.

Linda shows a picture of a bird in a field guide.

But here’s the thing- everyone was so helpful. Even though I was new to birding (affectionately referred to as a “fledgling”), I never felt embarrassed about my lack of knowledge. When the others saw a bird that I didn’t see, they always took great pains to explain exactly where it was and how to find it in the binoculars. They showed me pictures of birds in field guides and played recordings of their calls on iPads. I was always welcome to ask questions about what we were seeing or hearing, no matter how simple or complicated the answer. I might have been in over my head, but the atmosphere made me feel like I was a part of the team. I was proud to be participating in the fundraiser. I still can’t say I fully understand birding, but then, I know the difference between Hoth and Bespin, so who am I to judge?

If you want to go birding at Audubon, there are plenty of ways to get involved. On May 18-19, 2013 is Birdathon II, in which individuals and teams are encouraged to go birding wherever they are to raise money for Audubon. Bird banding demonstrations are also taking place at Audubon in May and June 2013. As always, we have a selection of bird feeders, seed, and field guides available in our Blue Heron Nature Store.

The Audubon Center & Sanctuary is located at 1600 Riverside Road, just off Route 61 between Warren and Jamestown. The trails and eagle viewing are open from dawn to dusk and the Center is open from 10:00am until 4:30pm daily except Sundays when we open at 1:00pm. Visit http://jamestownaudubon.org for more information or call the number above.

Emily Schlick is an intern at Audubon Center & Sanctuary and a major nerd.