CVAS Monthly Meetings Return!

We know you're ready to break out from pandemic isolation to meet with your Audubon friends again, hear about Audubon news and projects, and find out about local birds. You can learn more about our virtual meetings and how to join us on the calendar. Our next meeting is on Thursday, November 19 at 7:00pm.

Bird Migration Maps

Bird migration forecasts come from models trained on the last 23 years of bird movements in the atmosphere as detected by the US NEXRAD weather surveillance radar network. In these models they use the Global Forecasting System (GFS) to predict suitable conditions for migration occurring three hours after local sunset. You can view live migration maps right here. Happy birding!

How to Watch More Birds During the Pandemic

Brian Ellis published the following for Bird Watching Daily:

Are you looking for ideas to enrich your birding world while staying closer to home? Are you also, like many of us, missing the birdwatching community as well as our feathered friends?

I have had the good fortune to tour the world as a storyteller and author for more than 40 years. For the past dozen years, I have been a featured speaker at about 12 birding festivals each year, where I have shared the weekend with a few of my birding heroes but also where I have made lots of friends in the birding community, a wonderful collection of unusually fine folks.

In the past two years, I have taken birding trips to East Asia and South America. And last summer, I finally made it to my 50th state, Alaska. But like most of you, since the pandemic began, I have been spending a lot more time at home in northwestern Illinois. Nevertheless, I have been looking for ways to get my fix for more time with my avian friends...

You can read the rest of the article right here. One of the great things about birding is that you can do it in your own backyard. You can introduce your children to the joys of backyard birdwatching or practice your bird identification skills. You can make your property bird friendly and make your own bird feeders. We have all of the information you need right here on our website—check out our resources to learn more.

It's also a good time to enjoy some birding videos. Might we suggest The Secret Life of Bluebirds?

Chemung Valley Audubon Society invites you outdoors this summer. With many residents feeling a get-out-of-the-house eagerness after enduring months of isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CVAS urges you to consider the benefits of taking a hike. Over the past several years the local Audubon chapter has developed two properties in Steuben County (Northrup Hill & Gleason), as well as a trail at Mark Twain State Park in Chemung County, where you can enjoy outdoor experiences while still following social distancing guidelines.

A team of Audubon volunteers meets regularly at the three sites to clear out invasive species, plant native trees and pollinator gardens, and install ‘bee hotels’ to encourage valuable native bee species. These measures attract birds and other wildlife by offering the food and habitat they need to raise their young, fuel their migration during spring and autumn, and survive the winter. Boy Scouts have worked on trail maintenance, and a Cub Scout troop built and installed birdhouses. Eagle Scout construction projects include a kiosk and picnic tables.

A grant from the National Audubon Society allowed CVAS to commission local landscape artist Wynn Yarrow to create colorful and informative trail signs at the three locations. Trails are maintained for easy access and are open to the public during daylight hours for hiking and birding. Hunting, trapping, and motorized vehicles are prohibited. Pets must be leashed so as not to disturb wildlife, with no exceptions.

Hiking and wildlife watching are good for our bodies and our sense of well-being. CVAS invites people to use the trails and to enjoy the beauty and spectacle of wild nature in the Southern Tier. “Birding is an inexpensive, healthful, always entertaining outdoor activity that heightens one’s awareness and understanding of the environment and can be done anytime, anywhere,” noted Bill Ostrander. A lifelong birder and Chemung County resident, Ostrander leads Audubon walks that help people learn about and enjoy our area’s birds.

Northrup Hill Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary is a 24-acre preserve on Learn Road in the Town of Rathbone, Steuben County. The sanctuary’s wildlife habitats including grasslands, early-successional hardwoods, and a white pine–hemlock–hardwood forest that slopes downhill to a wetland. At an elevation of 1,700 feet, the property commands stunning views of the surrounding countryside. The land was given to CVAS as a gift from the Northrup family to be used as a nature preserve. The Northrup Hill Schoolhouse, a structure on the National Register of Historic Places, sits adjacent to the preserve.

The Gleason Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary covers 35-acres on Kelly Hill Road in the Steuben County Town of Caton. It is predominately forested, with a system of trails that passes through groves of hemlocks, pines, and northern hardwoods. A pond and small intermittent streams enhance the sanctuary’s value to plants and animals. The property was acquired with a bequest from the estate of long-time CVAS members Herbert and Virginia Gleason.

In Chemung County, CVAS partnered with Mark Twain State Park and Friends of the Catharine Valley Trail to build the Ek Birding Trail. Named to honor Rick and Betty Ek, of Horseheads, the trail winds through deciduous forest, shrub land, and hemlock forest and is surrounded by a cattail marsh along Catharine Creek. The Eks had the vision for the project and laid the groundwork to create the new trail, thereby extending the long-established Catharine Valley Trail into Mark Twain State Park. The trail is accessible from parking areas at the Elmira College Murray Athletic Center (“The Domes”) located along Route 14 at 170 Huck Finn Road in Horseheads.

Why do Audubon volunteers invest their time and labor to create and maintain the trails? “When working at the properties, I keep in mind our chapter’s mission to promote the study, enjoyment, and protection of birds and other wildlife,” says Conservation Chairman Brian Dugan. CVAS President Gail Norwood sums it up this way: “Audubon has a passion for education and conservation. We want to invite you, the nature-loving public, to join us and enjoy the many opportunities that we offer.”