10/25/13 Long Lake to Keene Valley.then briefly the Champlain Valley..back to Keene Valley & home to Long Lake (Hamilton & Essex Counties)
My younger son Ryan has been home this past week on a college break and he climbed three Adirondack High Peaks (12 left now to be an Adirondack 46er!). He found ice on Phelps and Tabletop on 10/23/13 (& had several falls), so he took crampons to climb Big Slide on 10/25/13. The 3 inches of new snow helped with footing, so the crampons stayed in his pack yesterday. It continues to snow at our home in Long Lake today (2000') - it's lovely! (I posted Ryan's photo of the stairway/ladder that leads to the summit of Big Slide on my Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/AdirondackAvian .) I had only a short time to visit the Champlain Valley (my son was up and down Big Slide in 3.5 hours) before heading back to Keene Valley. I visited Westport and Noblewood in mid to late afternoon. Here are a few of the 31 species found: Waterfowl: Canada Goose, Amer. Black Duck, Mallard, Bufflehead, Horned Grebe Bald Eagle - a wet adult flushed all the birds I was observing in Westport! Greater Yellowlegs - 1 at Westport Gulls: Bonaparte's, Ring-billed, Herring, and Great Black-backed (1 at Westport, and 1 at Noblewood) Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets Eastern Bluebird (2 on Co. Route 22G and ~15 on Napper Road in Westport) Yellow-rumped Warbler - several Sparrows: Song, White-crowned, and Dark-eyed Junco Snow Bunting - 1 in Minerva on the Blue Ridge Road (close to the border with Newcomb), first-of-the-season Joan Collins Long Lake, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --