RE: [cayugabirds-l] Taughannock Falls light show?

[Jane Frances Bunker]

That’s terrific news—thank you.

All day I’ve meant to carve out the time to write and say something about 
optics, and to suggest we make the argument that these groups could use the 
cancellation as a teaching moment about our precious fellow creatures and the 
importance of undisturbed habitat. So great that they made the right decision.

Many thanks to all who advocated for the peregrines and ravens.

Jane

Jane Bunker
Director
Cornell University Press
she/her/hers

Aupresses President

Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' 
(the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' are members of the Haudenosaunee 
Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and 
contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment 
of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We 
acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' dispossession, and honor the 
ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' people, past and present, to these lands 
and waters.

This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional 
Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' leadership.


From: bounce-128148580-90604...@list.cornell.edu 
 On Behalf Of Tim Gallagher
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2024 4:29 PM
To: sarah fern 
Cc: Richard Guthrie ; Deb Grantham 
; Dave Nutter ; Geo Kloppel 
; CAYUGABIRDS-L 
Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Taughannock Falls light show?

Here’s some great news. The Taughannock light show has been cancelled. They’re 
rescheduling it for the fall.
[cid:image001.jpg@01DA8F53.080EB4D0]
Update: Hike and illumination at Taughannock Falls 
canceled
mytwintiers.com



On Apr 15, 2024, at 1:47 PM, sarah fern 
mailto:fernsara...@gmail.com>> wrote:

My understanding is that all NYS park rangers have degrees in forestry. So I 
think they should know better about protecting wildlife. (Although I did watch 
a park ranger carry a mushroom-laden log out of a wildlife preserve and haul it 
away in his truck.)

On Mon, Apr 15, 2024, 1:24 PM Richard Guthrie 
mailto:richardpguth...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Parks and Recreation - and DEC - are concerned about the resources that they 
are charged with protecting - if it is not inconvenient and/or if they can get 
some good publicity. Otherwise they will find a way around whatever the 
“problem” is. Look at Upland Sandpipers v. solar farms, or Cerulean Warblers v. 
parking lot. The enablers have a thesaurus full of workaround words to justify 
their schemes.


On Apr 15, 2024, at 12:33 PM, Deb Grantham 
mailto:d...@cornell.edu>> wrote:

I’ve sent a message to Visit Ithaca so far.

Deb


From: 
bounce-128145756-83565...@list.cornell.edu
 
mailto:bounce-128145756-83565...@list.cornell.edu>>
 On Behalf Of Dave Nutter
Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2024 4:20 PM
To: Geo Kloppel mailto:geoklop...@gmail.com>>
Cc: CAYUGABIRDS-L 
mailto:cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu>>
Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Taughannock Falls light show?

I went to the websites for State Parks (NYSOPRHP), Tompkins County Chamber of 
Commerce, and Visit Ithaca, used the Contact Us feature of each, and briefly 
asked them to please not do a light show in the gorge due to potential 
disturbance of the Peregrines and Ravens nesting there.
- - Dave Nutter

On Apr 14, 2024, at 12:06 PM, Geo Kloppel 
mailto:geoklop...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Below is the press release for the evening light shows at the great falls in 
Taughannock Falls State Park later this week, which have potential to disturb 
the Peregrine Falcons and Ravens that are currently on nests there).

Note that the event is jointly hosted by NYS Parks, Visit Ithaca, and also the 
Tompkins Chamber, which is handling online registration for after-dark hikes up 
the gorge trail to the lighted falls.


Go for a hike and view the lights to celebrate 100 years of NYS Parks at 
Taughannock 
Falls
mytwintiers.com


On Apr 14, 2024, at 10:16 AM, Tim Gallagher 
mailto:t...@cornell.edu>> wrote:
I heard some disturbing news last night. Apparently Taughannock Falls will be 
brightly illuminated from 8:30 to 10:00 this coming Thursday, Friday, and 
Saturday night (April 18, 19, and 20). I guess it’s some kind of PR stunt to 
celebrate the 100th anniversary of the New York State Park Service, but it 
couldn’t possibly come at a worse time, with the eggs just about to 

Re: [cayugabirds-l] Involving the public to rename birds

[Jane Frances Bunker]

Dave, that’s a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing it.

Jane

On Nov 26, 2023, at 12:31 PM, Dave Nutter  wrote:


I think the idea is to give birds names which help us think of the birds rather 
than giving them names of people which can get the birds tangled in human 
affairs. The question becomes what attributes of the bird are unique, helpful, 
and concise enough to be a useful name for a species.

For example, the first time I encountered a LeConte’s Sparrow, I had never 
heard of LeConte, nor the bird which was named after him. In fact, I knew very 
little about sparrows. It was late December 1974, and I was a high schooler on 
a Christmas Bird Count near Ocean City, Maryland, hours away from my home, on a 
several-day youth birding field trip through a nature center.

The bird flushed from a dry weedy field where I was walking with my birding 
partner that day, another teenager named Paul Burdick. It perched atop a stalk 
several yards away and sat there while we stared perplexed through binoculars 
then got out our field guides. My Peterson Eastern US guide showed 14 tiny 
profiles of stripy-breasted sparrows on one page and 16 tiny profiles of 
plainer breasted sparrows on the next. They were hard for me to distinguish, 
and names like Lincoln’s, Henslow’s, Baird’s, LeConte’s, Nelson’s, and Harris’s 
gave no clues about habitat or field marks but instead mixed me up further. So 
I had never studied those pages, and in this crucial moment my eyes glazed over 
and my mind went blank.

I looked over Paul’s shoulder at his open Golden Guide to Birds of North 
America. It had a 2-page spread of larger bust portraits, which was better, of 
12 stripy-breasted sparrows opposite 20 plain-breasted sparrows, but including 
3 additional people-names. Nine pages followed with larger portraits facing 
descriptions and maps. Again, this was better, but it took awhile to rule out 
enough to arrive at the most likely page (which depicted nothing familiar to 
me). Our bird had a distinctly yellow face and a dark cap. I pointed to the 
picture at the top. “It’s that one with the white line in the middle of the 
crown.“ Amazingly, the bird was still atop the weed for us to double-check and 
agree: LeConte’s Sparrow. The map was so small and vague that we couldn’t tell 
that Maryland was a bit outside its range.

At the compilation that evening our bird was not on the list, but at the 
conclusion the compiler, Chandler Robbins, primary author of the Golden Guide, 
asked if there were any additional species. Paul and I raised our hands. 
“LeConte’s Sparrow”. The crowded room was quiet. There were no dismissive 
comments. The compiler handed each of us a pen and a piece of blank paper and 
asked us to describe and draw our observations. Sparrows are so small and 
complicated and stripy, and I had never tried to draw one (as I had some larger 
birds) nor considered the various feather tracts and what to call them. The 
bird had been alone, so size was hard to say, although it was small. I had 
never compared the length or shape of sparrows’ tails. My description was 
basically “a sparrow with no wing bars, that was yellow especially on the face, 
and that had a dark crown with a narrow white stripe down the middle.” We told 
the compiler where the field was, and it turns out the habitat was appropriate.

Although our observation was not immediately added to the count, our 
descriptions prompted a return expedition a week later from Washington, DC, and 
I was invited as was another teenager, Peter Pyle, a budding bander (who later 
wrote the banders’ Identification Guide to North American Passerines.) There 
were 2 or 3 carloads of us. We set up mist nets in front of a hedge at one end 
of the field, then most of us circled around to the far end, spread out, and 
slowly walked toward the nets, driving the birds ahead of us. Peter was among a 
few who stayed near the nets. As the birds arrived he saw the little yellowish 
one approaching, but it flew between a pole and the adjacent net to settle on 
the ground just beyond. Peter clapped a hand down over it and caught the first 
Maryland record of LeConte’s Sparrow. Several people took photographs. A couple 
feathers were plucked, I think to add to the Smithsonian collections, then I 
was very relieved that the bird was released rather than turned entirely into a 
museum specimen. Someone went to a pay phone to make a collect phone call from 
“Lee Conte” as a coded message that our ID was good.

Paul and I could not have identified the bird if it had not stayed perched long 
enough for us to flip through the field guides. Our process might have been a 
lot faster if the bird was named “Yellow-faced Sparrow,” so that’s my 
suggestion.


- - Dave Nutter

On Nov 26, 2023, at 9:37 AM, Donna Lee Scott 
mailto:d...@cornell.edu>> wrote:

Horrors. No bird deserves a name like that!

Donna Scott
Kendal at Ithaca-377
Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 26, 2023, at 8:58 AM, billebersbach 

RE: [cayugabirds-l] Elmira Limpkin

[Jane Frances Bunker]

Ha. If she wasn’t she certainly should have been.

From: bounce-127840826-90604...@list.cornell.edu 
 On Behalf Of Robin Cisne
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2023 7:10 AM
To: Dave Nutter 
Cc: CAYUGABIRDS-L 
Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Elmira Limpkin

Wasn't she the villain in an early 20th c. novel?




On Sun, Oct 22, 2023 at 10:18 PM Dave Nutter 
mailto:nutter.d...@me.com>> wrote:
On 12 October Barb Borelli found and photographed a Limpkin along the Chemung 
River in Elmira and reported it to eBird. This morning (22 October) Martin Cain 
refound & photographed it, also along the edge of the river. This afternoon Ann 
Mitchell & I went to look for it, and we were close by, as were Adam Farid & 
Mike Gullo, when Jeremy Collison discovered the Limpkin a hundred yards from 
the river standing and resting in the dead-leaf-strewn floodplain forest 
immediately southeast of Pirozzolo Park in an area which seemed to be 
associated with a culvert below the corner of the levee. The bird was standing 
almost under the Japanese Knotweed which covered the embankment above. We were 
surprised when it walked toward us, coming within a few yards behind a narrow 
screen of knotweed, then it turned and strolled toward the river, sometimes out 
in the open, and rested again at the top of the riverbank for several minutes, 
remaining there when we left at 4pm. During the 40 minutes we watched it, it 
was silent and neither flew nor fed but seemed relaxed & healthy. Later 
observers saw it catching worms in the leaf litter. If you seek this bird, 
don’t just look at the edge of the river, look in the woods, too. Pirozzolo 
Park is near the West Elmira fire station on Water Street.
This is the second NYS record for this species. The first record was just last 
autumn along the Niagara River. That bird was captured just before the deadly 
blizzard hit Buffalo, and I believe it was released in South Carolina.

- - Dave Nutter
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RE: Re:[cayugabirds-l] [eatonbirdingsociety] "peter, peter, peter"

[Jane Frances Bunker]

Is this odd? Am in Ellis Hollow and I don’t believe the titmice ever left. I’m 
not sure I realized they weren’t supposed to be here year round.

From: bounce-127090315-90604...@list.cornell.edu 
 On Behalf Of 
chuckgib...@verizon.net
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2023 7:24 PM
To: eatonbirdingsoci...@groups.io; Peter Saracino ; 
CAYUGABIRDS-L 
Subject: Re:[cayugabirds-l] [eatonbirdingsociety] "peter, peter, peter"

We also had a titmouse visit one of our feeders.
Sent from the all new AOL app for 
Android

On Sun, Jan 22, 2023 at 9:09 AM, Peter Saracino
mailto:petersarac...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Out filling the feeders just now and, for the first time in a long time, I 
caught the sound of the titmouse's "peter, peter, peter"!!!

"The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind"
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Sar
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RE: [cayugabirds-l] A great read for birders to consider by Bryan Pfeiffer

[Jane Frances Bunker]

I love the idea of including a focus on plants and insects as well as birds, 
and am guessing there is plenty of expertise in this group to do so. Or we 
could also reach out to like-minded organizations to partner/collaborate in 
this way. A focus on the broader ecosystem makes great sense, a la Doug Tallamy.

From: bounce-126137580-90604...@list.cornell.edu 
 On Behalf Of Poppy Singer
Sent: Thursday, December 9, 2021 9:13 AM
To: Stephanie P. Herrick 
Cc: bob mcguire ; Dave Nutter 
; linda orkin ; John Gregoire 
; CAYUGABIRDS-L 
Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] A great read for birders to consider by Bryan 
Pfeiffer

It would be fun to learn about insects as well!

On Thu, Dec 9, 2021 at 9:02 AM Poppy Singer 
mailto:poppysinger.ith...@gmail.com>> wrote:
I appreciated the author saying that he has shifted his focus to learning more 
of the local flora and fauna. Along this line, perhaps we could combine bird 
walks with plant walks?

On Thu, Dec 9, 2021 at 8:31 AM Stephanie P. Herrick 
mailto:s...@cornell.edu>> wrote:
I like this idea Bob,  for two reasons:

1. It benefits two worthy and appropriate local groups
2. The very act of making a mindful contribution encourages us to reflect on 
why we are doing it

Thanks for suggesting!   Looking forward to others thoughts!

- S

From: 
bounce-126137445-82496...@list.cornell.edu
 
mailto:bounce-126137445-82496...@list.cornell.edu>>
 on behalf of bob mcguire 
mailto:bmcgu...@clarityconnect.com>>
Sent: Thursday, December 9, 2021 8:20:11 AM
To: Dave Nutter mailto:nutter.d...@me.com>>
Cc: linda orkin mailto:wingmagi...@gmail.com>>; John 
Gregoire mailto:johnandsuegrego...@gmail.com>>; 
CAYUGABIRDS-L 
mailto:cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu>>
Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] A great read for birders to consider by Bryan 
Pfeiffer

Me too (a movement here?).

And I have one small idea on how to deal with it. Bird clubs organize field 
trips, and participation is free. What if each participant was encouraged (not 
required, just encouraged) to donate - say - $10 to either the Land Trust or 
the SPCA? The Land Trust because they are a major player in habitat 
conservation, and the SPCA because they (and I’d have to check this out) play a 
role in reducing the number of feral/outdoor cats. Local organizations, local 
impact.

Could something like this fly?

Bob McGuire


On Dec 8, 2021, at 4:11 PM, Dave Nutter 
mailto:nutter.d...@me.com>> wrote:

Better said than I could have, though such concerns have been brewing for me a 
long time. So, how do we deal with it? As individuals, as organizations, as 
unorganized groups? Thoughts welcome.
- - Dave Nutter

On Dec 8, 2021, at 11:02 AM, Linda Orkin 
mailto:wingmagi...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Thanks John.

Yes I had also read that, with great interest. Lots to think about. I embrace 
these thoughts fully.

Linda Orkin
Ithaca, NY


On Dec 8, 2021, at 10:21 AM, John Gregoire 
mailto:johnandsuegrego...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Birdwatching’s Carbon Problem | Bryan 
Pfeiffer
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