One of America’s leading ornithologists, Dr. Frank Gill, will be the keynote speaker for the 5th Annual Great Adirondack Birding Celebration, to be held June 1-3, 2007 at the Adirondack Park Agency Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC) in Paul Smiths. Dr. Frank Gill will give his address to birders at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 2 in the Paul Smiths VIC theater.
“We are extremely excited to have one of the biggest names in birding come to the Paul Smiths VIC for this year’s Great Adirondack Birding Celebration,” said VIC naturalist and event organizer Lydia Wright. “He literally wrote the book on ornithology.”
No kidding! This guy is a birding legend. Lydia is right, he did write the book. Check out his birding creds:
- Age 7 – First Bird identified, Song Sparrow
- 1969 – PhD Zoology, University of Michigan
- 1969-1995 – Ornithology Department, Academy of Natural Sciences
- 1996-2004 – National Audubon Society, Senior Vice President and Director of Science
- 1998-2000 – President of the American Ornithologists’ Union
- 1998 – Recipient William Brewster Memorial Award
- 2007 – National Audubon Society, Board of Directors
- Birds of North America, Life Histories for the 21st Century – Editor
- Ornithology – Author
- Birds of the World: Recommended English Names – Co-author
Did you know that Ornithology is considered the primary textbook in its field? Well it is.
The Great Adirondack Birding Celebration starts at 2 p.m. Friday, June 1 with a Boreal Ecology Hike, led by John Brown, at the Paul Smiths VIC. The welcome reception begins at 6:30 p.m., and at 7 p.m. author/naturalist Ed Kanze, of Bloomingdale, will give a presentation on “The World of John Burroughs.” At 8:30 p.m., VIC naturalists will lead an Owl Prowl on the VIC trail system.
On Saturday, June 2, birding field trips will be held from 6:30 to 11:30 a.m. Exhibitors and vendors will set up from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Afternoon programs from 1 to 4 p.m. will include a sketching and journaling workshop with artist/naturalist Sheri Amsel and an “Adirondack Birds by Habitat” presentation by nature photographer Jeff Nadler. The Teddy Roosevelt Birding Challenge will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. And the keynote address begins at 8 p.m. in the VIC theater.
On Sunday, June 3, birding field trips will be held from 6:30 to 11:30 a.m.
The Paul Smiths VIC features prime boreal habitat, and some of the boreal species birders will seek on the field trips include the black-backed woodpecker, three-toed woodpecker, boreal chickadee, gray jay, Bicknell’s thrush and many species of warblers.
The Great Adirondack Birding Celebration is free and open to the public. Awesome!
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The dangers of living in the Adirondacks are hard to appreciate. I can tell you first-hand that the Adirondack Buck is not to be trifled with. My experience came two years ago while traveling about 70mph on the Northway. A scary incident for me, traumatic for the deer. This weekend there was another tragedy. I know, you’re thinking, “whatever, another hunting accident…”.
