> Yes 1963 was the earliest (or at least the earliest that was recorded). > All the data from all years can be seen here: > https://drive.google.com/file/d/19EWVe-v5fKI3s93ciNoNwy2Wpp-GpNg6/view. > > There were 61 species observed in 1963. Of those, two have not shown up > on the count since: Dickcissel and Green-tailed Towhee! > -Paul >
that answer may depend upon how you define a Christmas Bird Count. I don't doubt that the modern Ithaca CBC dates from 1963. but - with the important caveat that it took decades for the CBC to assume its current form, and that early CBCs had few guidelines (and, typically, very few participants) - there were a few earlier Christmas counts from the Ithaca area. before 1963, there were several single observer CBCs from Ithaca that were published in Bird-Lore and Audubon Magazine. the earliest I have found is one by Francis Harper from December 1904, which was only the 5th year of the Christmas Bird Count - a very early contribution. the next one that I know of was in December 1914, by Ludlow Griscom (!), who I believe at that time was a graduate student at Cornell. John P. Young submitted an Ithaca CBC for December 1922. and J. Kenneth Terres submitted four consecutive single observer CBCs from Ithaca, from December 1938 to December 1941. there also was a count submitted from Trumansburg in December 1915, which as far as I know never was repeated. I've long been surprised by the fact that Ithaca did not develop its CBC until relatively late in the game. a possible clue comes from this tidbit in Greg Butcher's and Kevin McGowan's 1995 paper (History of ornithology at Cornell University): "[Arthur A.] Allen started a number of birding traditions in the Cayuga Lake basin, including a New Year's Day Count (split in 1963 to become three Christmas Bird Counts) and a May Big Day count. On New Year's Day, the Allens hosted a turkey dinner for all participants; on the May Big Day, the Allens provided a breakfast at their home and a picnic dinner at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge". does anyone know when this New Year's Day Count was established, and why?aside from the handful of CBCs mentioned above, by the 1950s the Christmas Bird Count really was catching on. Ithaca was surrounded by communities that already were doing CBCs, such as Cortland, Watkins Glen, Elmira, Binghamton, and Syracuse. what was the allure of the New Year's Day Count? for me, of course with the benefit of hindsight, the Ithaca birding community of the 1950s (and earlier?) seems to have been uncharacteristically out of step with trending approaches to birding and ornithology when it comes to their delayed adoption of the Christmas Bird Count. I'd very interested to know if anyone has more information on this period of Ithaca birding history. tss > On 12/29/2018 10:16 AM, Randolph Scott Little wrote: > > When was the first Ithaca Christmas Bird Count? It may have been > > 1/1/63, as that is the earliest NYIT CBC that I could find in the > > National Audubon Society web archive. Perhaps I could find it > > somewhere in my old files, as I recall working > > with Dorothy McIlroy to establish the first circle, whose center has > > since been moved slightly. Good birding! --Randy > > > > -- > > > > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME > > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES > > > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > > > > > -- > Paul Anderson, VP of Engineering, GrammaTech, Inc. > 531 Esty St., Ithaca, NY 14850 > Tel: +1 607 273-7340 x118; http://www.grammatech.com > > > -- > > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > > ARCHIVES: > 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html > 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds > 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html > > Please submit your observations to eBird: > http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > > -- > -- Thomas S. Schulenberg Research Associate Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca NY 14850 http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/portal/home http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist voice: 607.254.1113 email: ts...@cornell.edu, tschulenb...@gmail.com -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
