Spring has finally arrived, and with it comes the longer days, warmer weather and the usual influx of tourists; but they won’t be the only ones flocking to our area in the coming weeks.
“The birds that will be coming this time of year, and into the summer, will be the eastern meadowlarks, savannah sparrows, bobolinks, and eastern bluebirds,” says John Loz, President of the Southern Adirondack Audubon Society, or SAAS.
A bird and pollinator-friendly native plant garden at Delong Usher Park in Lake George • Photo: Bri Lyons
Celebrating 40 years as a community organization, the local chapter of the National Audubon Society continues to uphold its mission to protect the environment through the preservation of natural habitats, and the advancement of environmental education. “We like to use the tagline, ‘conservation through education,’ with a focus on birds, of course,” Loz says. “Our bread and butter is educating the public through our monthly programs, and we do that between our centers in Glens Falls and Saratoga Springs.”
Though based here in Queensbury, the local Audubon chapter encompasses an expansive territory. “Our catchment area runs from Saratoga Springs north to Crown Point, and then it heads west to Blue Mountain Lake, and south to Caroga Lake, so our area is quite large,” Loz says. “We’ve mostly focused on where people have been able to volunteer, which is in the communities along the Northway, but we’d really like to start expanding west and do more things out toward Indian Lake and North Creek.”
Photo: Nicholas Chowske
The SAAS has a variety of programs, projects, and events to help get the community involved with environmental conservation, including bird walks, community science surveys, and even international field trips. “We like to be out in the community anywhere we can be,” Loz says. From farmer’s markets to naturefests, you can find Loz and his birders reaching out to educate and inform. Last year, the SAAS worked with Common Roots Brewing Company for one of their membership drives. “We brought live birds of prey into their temporary taproom, and it was a great opportunity to educate a different demographic, and to talk to people who didn’t know anything about birds," Loz says. "What better way to encourage people to learn about the environment than to offer them a free pint of beer if they signed up to become a member of our Audubon chapter?”
Recently the SAAS has been planting bird and pollinator-friendly native plant gardens in local communities. “Research has found that installing gardens and planting native plants and shrubbery is really important for our migrating birds.” They began with a pilot garden in the Town of Greenfield, and have since added a second garden in the Delong Usher Park in Lake George. This year, the SAAS plans to expand by placing gardens in South Glens Falls, Bolton Landing and Ballston Spa.
A bee enjoys the bird and pollinator-friendly garden in Delong Usher Park, Lake George • Photo: Bri Lyons
“I really want to give a shout out to the town of Lake George,” Loz says. “They have been very supportive of bird-friendly initiatives, such as putting up preventative measures for the big glass windows they have on their municipal building on Old Post Road.” Window strikes are one of the biggest killers of birds, according to Loz. “We want to prevent any bird strikes and bird collisions with windows that would reflect habitat, and that building has very large reflective windows, which birds can fly right into.”
In addition to local events, the SAAS and it’s volunteers also participate in the National Audubon Society’s annual bird counts and Climate Watch Surveys. “We host the Hudson Falls Christmas Bird Count, where we ask expert and amature birders alike to come out to help us count birds, and we submit those numbers to the National Audubon Society.” Now in it’s 122nd year, the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count is a bird census that employs tens of thousands of volunteers across the Americas who count the birds in their community between December 15th and January 5th.
While the Christmas Bird Count encourages volunteers to count every bird they can, the Climate Watch Survey, now in its fifth year, focuses on just two birds - white breasted nuthatches and red breasted nuthatches - as a bellwether for climate change. The Climate Watch Survey is conducted twice a year by SAAS Director Rob Snell. “It’s based on a long term study that Audubon is doing, for at least 10 years,” Snell says. “They’re trying to compile data on some pretty common birds that they think are going to be affected by climate change.”
For the survey, the chapter’s territory is divided into a grid, and then volunteers are asked to go to 12 different places in their grid and listen for nuthatches - once in early winter, and again in late spring. The numbers are then submitted to the National Audubon Society for analysis. "They’re looking for changes in population dynamics, to see if it corroborates with the mathematical models that they have with regard to climate change and the effects on these populations of birds," Snell says. "One of the species that we’re looking at really isn’t expected to have any changes - expansion or contraction - and the other they are modeling the population to decline by as much as 15 percent, which is dramatic over a 10 year period." The survey has been conducted each year from January 15 to February 15, and again from May 15 to June 15, since 2015. “It’s fun, it’s easy, and it’s not hard for individuals, even with basic experience with birds,” Snell says. ‘It’s something that they can all do, and they’re contributing to real science, which is cool.”
While the SAAS is always looking for volunteers and new members, they also provide a number of tips and educational resources for people who just want to get to know their local birds better. “If you want to do backyard birding, you can start with a tube feeder or a regular mixed seed feeder, as well as a hummingbird feeder,” Loz says. He also recommends a birdbath and planting native shrubbery wherever possible. “A lot of suburban areas that have feeders have been attracting hawks, so we want to give those little birds some place to hide and escape to between the feeders and the shrubbery.”
For those who want to get more involved, Loz hopes to begin offering their bird walks again soon. “We’ve unfortunately had to suspend those due to Covid-19 and the pandemic, but we are looking to have a limited run of bird walks to get people outdoors and educate them in person later this year,” he says.
