RE: Re:[cayugabirds-l] history of the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count
I remember Dorothy MacIllroy describing the transition from the Jan 1 Cayuga Lake Basin count to participation in the Christmas Bird Count. I don’t know from where the push came to make the change, but Arthur Allen was resistant to making the change. The Basin count always started on Jan 1, but the dates of the CBC did not extend to Jan 1. And of course, a 15 diameter circle did not match the Basin. Eventually, the CBC organizers and Doc Allen compromised. The CBC dates were extended to include Jan 1 and Doc Allen agreed to 3 count circles to cover much of the Basin, one in the south around Ithaca, one in the north around Montezuma and one in the middle, perhaps centered on Aurora. I wonder if that was ever written about in the Cayuga Bird Club Newsletter? I’m pretty sure that was where I heard Dorothy give this history. Marty === Marty Schlabach m...@cornell.edu 8407 Powell Rd. home 607-532-3467 Interlaken, NY 14847 cell315-521-4315 === From: bounce-123229686-3494...@list.cornell.edu On Behalf Of Randolph Scott Little Sent: Tuesday, January 8, 2019 8:58 PM To: Tom Schulenberg ; Charles R. Smith Cc: Paul Anderson ; CAYUGABIRDS-L ; gregbutche...@hotmail.com; Rick Bonney Subject: Re:[cayugabirds-l] history of the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count Hi Tom, et al., Nice that you are really digging into this. Regarding item 1), I don't remember any formal New Year's Day count prior to the 1963 initiation of the Ithaca CBC. My impression of the "count" of prior years was simply that Doc urged people to report any and all "first" sightings within the Cayuga Basin, and that each year the list would start anew on 1/1. I am not aware of any organized outing on 1/1, nor do I recall Doc ever talking about his own New Year's Day birding. The turkey dinner is news to me. May, however, was a different matter. In addition to the Saturday morning bird walks in May at Stewart (Renwick) Park, Doc was the focal point for the Big Day, which certainly did scour the entire Cayuga Basin for 24 hours and included a morning breakfast at the Allen home on Kline Road. Participants were mostly academics. I was first invited to join Doc's team in 1953, and considered that a great honor. We started at 3AM by checking for Barn Owls at a church on downtown Ithaca's South side. After breakfast we headed up the lake as far as Howland's Island and checked Montezuma thoroughly. Ed Seeber, a professor at Ithaca College, was the only non-Cornellian that I recall being part of the organized group. Regarding item 3), in light of what I already said about not recalling any formal group activity on 1/1, I don't think there was really any "phasing out" by Doc or anyone else. The keeping of a "first sighting" list for the entire Cayuga Basin continued without interruption. The Ithaca CBC results simply got the basin list off to a running start. If anything, it may have relaxed any pressure that Doc may have felt to get the new birding year off to a good start. I hope others who were around then or in the later '60s can provide additional recollections or correct my myopia. Good birding, Randy - Original Message - From: Tom Schulenberg<mailto:ts...@cornell.edu> To: Charles R. Smith<mailto:c...@cornell.edu> Cc: r...@att.net<mailto:r...@att.net> ; Paul Anderson<mailto:p...@grammatech.com> ; CAYUGABIRDS-L<mailto:cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu> ; gregbutche...@hotmail.com<mailto:gregbutche...@hotmail.com> ; Rick Bonney<mailto:r...@cornell.edu> Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2019 8:09 PM Subject: Re: history of the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count bits and pieces of the story are coming out, which is great, but I have a few more questions: 1) does anyone know when Allen's New Year's Day count was initiated? it takes traditions a while to become, well, traditions, but I'm curious to know just how early this became a focus of local birding. 2) the CBC had its (modest) origins in 1900, which is to say, before there could have been much in the way of birding traditions in Ithaca. and it was the brainchild of Frank Chapman, who was well known both to Allen and (especially) to Louis Agassiz Fuertes. but I've found no evidence that either Allen or Fuertes ever experimented with the CBC, even as others across upstate New York began trying out the CBC from very early on. am I the only one who thinks there's something odd about this? there's no record of Allen's or Fuertes's thoughts on Chapman's CBC scheme? 3) I appreciate all the background on the phaseout of the Basin-wide New Year's Day count in favor of the Ithaca CBC. but what's still not clear to
Re:[cayugabirds-l] history of the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count
Hi Tom, et al., Nice that you are really digging into this. Regarding item 1), I don't remember any formal New Year's Day count prior to the 1963 initiation of the Ithaca CBC. My impression of the "count" of prior years was simply that Doc urged people to report any and all "first" sightings within the Cayuga Basin, and that each year the list would start anew on 1/1. I am not aware of any organized outing on 1/1, nor do I recall Doc ever talking about his own New Year's Day birding. The turkey dinner is news to me. May, however, was a different matter. In addition to the Saturday morning bird walks in May at Stewart (Renwick) Park, Doc was the focal point for the Big Day, which certainly did scour the entire Cayuga Basin for 24 hours and included a morning breakfast at the Allen home on Kline Road. Participants were mostly academics. I was first invited to join Doc's team in 1953, and considered that a great honor. We started at 3AM by checking for Barn Owls at a church on downtown Ithaca's South side. After breakfast we headed up the lake as far as Howland's Island and checked Montezuma thoroughly. Ed Seeber, a professor at Ithaca College, was the only non-Cornellian that I recall being part of the organized group. Regarding item 3), in light of what I already said about not recalling any formal group activity on 1/1, I don't think there was really any "phasing out" by Doc or anyone else. The keeping of a "first sighting" list for the entire Cayuga Basin continued without interruption. The Ithaca CBC results simply got the basin list off to a running start. If anything, it may have relaxed any pressure that Doc may have felt to get the new birding year off to a good start. I hope others who were around then or in the later '60s can provide additional recollections or correct my myopia. Good birding, Randy - Original Message - From: Tom Schulenberg To: Charles R. Smith Cc: r...@att.net ; Paul Anderson ; CAYUGABIRDS-L ; gregbutche...@hotmail.com ; Rick Bonney Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2019 8:09 PM Subject: Re: history of the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count bits and pieces of the story are coming out, which is great, but I have a few more questions: 1) does anyone know when Allen's New Year's Day count was initiated? it takes traditions a while to become, well, traditions, but I'm curious to know just how early this became a focus of local birding. 2) the CBC had its (modest) origins in 1900, which is to say, before there could have been much in the way of birding traditions in Ithaca. and it was the brainchild of Frank Chapman, who was well known both to Allen and (especially) to Louis Agassiz Fuertes. but I've found no evidence that either Allen or Fuertes ever experimented with the CBC, even as others across upstate New York began trying out the CBC from very early on. am I the only one who thinks there's something odd about this? there's no record of Allen's or Fuertes's thoughts on Chapman's CBC scheme? 3) I appreciate all the background on the phaseout of the Basin-wide New Year's Day count in favor of the Ithaca CBC. but what's still not clear to me is, was it Allen's initiative to make this change? and if so, what lead him to the (late) embrace of the CBC? or was this a bottom up process, whereby local birders began pushing to participate in an activity that they could see going on all around them? I'm probably decades too late in asking these questions, but I'm going to throw them out there anyway, just to stir the pot. Randy: Good to hear from you, and thank you for including me in your correspondence. I can contribute "the rest of the story," relating to the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count. My information is based upon my chats with Paul Kellogg and Sally Spofford, when I was Paul's teaching assistant for his Summer CAU course in the early 1970s. Having an Ithaca Christmas Bird Count, following Audubon criteria, was the result of a compromise between Allen and National Audubon, facilitated by Roger Tory Peterson. In its beginning, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count did not include 1 Jan among the acceptable dates for conducting a count. Allen agreed to initiate a Christmas Bird Count, following the Audubon criteria, if Audubon would agree to including 1 Jan within its time period for conducting the counts. Audubon modified its count period to include 1 Jan, and the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count, following Audubon criteria, was initiated on 1 Jan 1963. So far as I know, the center of the count still was the intersection of Mount Pleasant and Turkey Hill Road for the 2017 count (actually conducted 1 Jan 2018 -see http://netapp.audubon.org/cbcobservation/ ). I was pleased to learn of your role and Dorothy McIlroy's leadership in helping to define the original Ithaca Christmas Bird Count circle. Incidentally, Allen's earlier 1 Jan counts accepted the
Re:[cayugabirds-l] history of the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count
bits and pieces of the story are coming out, which is great, but I have a few more questions: 1) does anyone know when Allen's New Year's Day count was initiated? it takes traditions a while to become, well, traditions, but I'm curious to know just how early this became a focus of local birding. 2) the CBC had its (modest) origins in 1900, which is to say, before there could have been much in the way of birding traditions in Ithaca. and it was the brainchild of Frank Chapman, who was well known both to Allen and (especially) to Louis Agassiz Fuertes. but I've found no evidence that either Allen or Fuertes ever experimented with the CBC, even as others across upstate New York began trying out the CBC from very early on. am I the only one who thinks there's something odd about this? there's no record of Allen's or Fuertes's thoughts on Chapman's CBC scheme? 3) I appreciate all the background on the phaseout of the Basin-wide New Year's Day count in favor of the Ithaca CBC. but what's still not clear to me is, was it Allen's initiative to make this change? and if so, what lead him to the (late) embrace of the CBC? or was this a bottom up process, whereby local birders began pushing to participate in an activity that they could see going on all around them? I'm probably decades too late in asking these questions, but I'm going to throw them out there anyway, just to stir the pot. > Randy: > > Good to hear from you, and thank you for including me in your > correspondence. I can contribute "the rest of the story," relating to the > Ithaca Christmas Bird Count. My information is based upon my chats with > Paul Kellogg and Sally Spofford, when I was Paul's teaching assistant for > his Summer CAU course in the early 1970s. > > Having an Ithaca Christmas Bird Count, following Audubon criteria, was the > result of a compromise between Allen and National Audubon, facilitated by > Roger Tory Peterson. In its beginning, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count > did not include 1 Jan among the acceptable dates for conducting a count. > Allen agreed to initiate a Christmas Bird Count, following the Audubon > criteria, if Audubon would agree to including 1 Jan within its time period > for conducting the counts. Audubon modified its count period to include 1 > Jan, and the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count, following Audubon criteria, was > initiated on 1 Jan 1963. So far as I know, the center of the count still > was the intersection of Mount Pleasant and Turkey Hill Road for the 2017 > count (actually conducted 1 Jan 2018 -see > http://netapp.audubon.org/cbcobservation/ ). > > I was pleased to learn of your role and Dorothy McIlroy's leadership in > helping to define the original Ithaca Christmas Bird Count > circle. Incidentally, Allen's earlier 1 Jan counts accepted the > delineation of the Cayuga Lake Basin, which was first published as a map in > Wiegand and Eames, *Flora of the Cayuga Lake Basin, New York*, in 1926. > > Let me know the next time you're in Ithaca; maybe we could go birding. I > don't do much "bird-watching," but I've been fortunate to have had > opportunities to study and survey birds in the field for a bit more than 60 > years, now, and am continuing to do so. Best wishes for the new year. > > -- Charlie > > *** > Charles R. Smith, Ph.D., Naturalist and Professional Skeptic > Senior Research Associate, Retired > Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-3001 > c...@cornell.edu > > "The greatest impediment to progress is not ignorance, but the illusion of > knowledge." > from *The Discoverers*, by Daniel Boorstin > > "In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." > -- George Orwell > > “The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.” -- Mark Twain > *** > -- > *From:* Randolph Scott Little > *Sent:* Friday, January 4, 2019 9:32 PM > *To:* Tom Schulenberg; Paul Anderson > *Cc:* CAYUGABIRDS-L; gregbutche...@hotmail.com; Charles R. Smith; > CAYUGABIRDS-L; Rick Bonney > *Subject:* Re: history of the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count > > Hi Tom & Paul, > > You have done some good digging! A check of my birding log brought > disappointing results - it only goes back to 1968 > after I had graduated from Cornell and gone on to Ohio. It may well be, > and that 1968 timing would have been about right, > that I included my earlier records in with the materials that I deposited > in the Cornell Library archives. > > Yes, at least through the 1950's and early 1960's when I was in Ithaca, > Doc Allen always kicked off the new year with > a checklist of observations in the entire Cayuga Basin. That watershed > area served as the basis for the annual listing > of first sighting dates. After the Stuart Observatory was built, that > annual list was kept on a large bulletin board in > the observatory. A new list was started e
Re:[cayugabirds-l] history of the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count
Hi Tom & Paul, You have done some good digging! A check of my birding log brought disappointing results - it only goes back to 1968 after I had graduated from Cornell and gone on to Ohio. It may well be, and that 1968 timing would have been about right, that I included my earlier records in with the materials that I deposited in the Cornell Library archives. Yes, at least through the 1950's and early 1960's when I was in Ithaca, Doc Allen always kicked off the new year with a checklist of observations in the entire Cayuga Basin. That watershed area served as the basis for the annual listing of first sighting dates. After the Stuart Observatory was built, that annual list was kept on a large bulletin board in the observatory. A new list was started every January 1st. To this day I keep my annual list on that old basin checklist, which contains Passenger Pigeon but not House Finch, for example. As for the first January 1st count that followed the National Audubon Society CBC rules, I believe Paul is right that it began on 1/1/1963. That was my last Spring in Ithaca, and after considerable discussion with members of the informal Cayuga Bird Club, Dorothy McIlroy convinced me to define a circle, divide it into sectors, assign teams to each sector, and compile the results. I assembled the several USGS topographic maps covering Ithaca and surroundings on the wall in the hallway of my parents' home, and tested various 15-mile circles to try to encompass key places such as Dryden Lake and Taughannock Point. Ultimately I settled on centering it at the intersection of Mt. Pleasant Road and Turkey Hill Road, although admittedly that didn't quite include Taughannock Point. For the following Ithaca CBC, I promised to return over the holidays to participate in and compile the 1/1/1964 count if other Cayuga Bird Club members would set up the teams and plan to take over the whole CBC the next year. (By that time I had become involved in several extant CBCs in central Ohio, and soon started yet another called the Kingston (OH) CBC in an area known for winter Rough-legged Hawks and Short-eared Owls.) I did not stay closely enough in touch with the Ithaca CBC over the intervening years to know exactly when the official center of the circle was shifted, but it is my impression that the shift would not invalidate statistical inferences drawn from both the original and the current counts. Thank you and ... Good birding, Randy Randolph Scott Little 111 Berkeley Circle Basking Ridge, NJ 07920 Phone: (908)221-9173 r...@att.net or rs...@cornell.edu - Original Message - From: Tom Schulenberg To: Paul Anderson Cc: Randolph Scott Little ; Upstate NY Birding ; gregbutche...@hotmail.com ; c...@cornell.edu ; Cayugabirds- L ; Rick Bonney Sent: Friday, January 04, 2019 8:34 PM Subject: Re: history of the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count 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 dinne
Re:[cayugabirds-l] history of the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count
> 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/ --
