----- Original Message -----
From: "John M Peterson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 11:13 PM
Subject: NNYBirds: Crown Point Bird Banding Station


>      The banding station on the grounds of the Crown Point State Historic
> Site, located in thickets just west of the British fort, will open for
> the 29th consecutive season on Sunday, May 9th, and will close on or
> about Victoria Day, Monday, May 24th.  Operated annually since 1976, the
> station is a project of the Crown Point Banding Association and is open
> to all.  However, the station will be closed to the public for the
> weekend of May 15-16, due to another major event at the site.  Please
> avoid those two days.
>
>      All Region 7 Atlas 2000 observers should plan to pick up materials
> for the '04 field season at the banding station, unless other
> arrangements have been made with the regional coordinator.  In addition
> to the many usual classes and groups, a Camporee of 100+ Boy Scouts will
> camp at the Historic Site and visit the station on the weekend of May
> 21st, while an estimated million students in 10 thousand classrooms
> across North America are sharing the Journey North program on our Crown
> Point banding this month.  Last year the station went around the world on
> "National Geographic Today" on the NGS satellite TV channel.
>
>      The volunteer banding team camps out at the station and opens the
> nets at first light (about 5 a.m.).  The best banding usually takes place
> from dawn until mid-morning, but birds are steadily netted throughout the
> day.  All visitors should park in the main parking lot in front of the
> museum, walk past the gate of the British fort and uphill through an old
> farmyard, then take the grassy, mown trail to the LEFT (or south) down
> the field to the station. Visitors who arrive before the gate opens, or
> on days when the Site is closed, should park across the road and NOT
> between the gate and the highway, then walk in the access road and take a
> shortcut behind the gray restroom building, over the rise, and down the
> field to the banding station-- several tents and tables against the
> hawthorn groves to the west.
>
>      After a two-year permitting process with OPR&HP, DEC, and the NYS
> Heritage Program, the green ash thinning project was completed this past
> winter, and we hope this will conserve at least a portion of the hawthorn
> thickets that helped gain Audubon Important Bird Area [IBA] status for
> the Historic Site, at least for another decade or so, and continue to
> provide cover and food for migrants and residents.  We appreciate the
> help of Historic Site Manager William Farrar, his staff, and the Moriah
> Shock Camp.  We also anticipate that Governor Pataki may soon name Crown
> Point SHS as a new NYS Bird Conservation Area [BCA], with our unbroken
> banding research a key component of that designation.
>
>      With no rushing brooks, Crown Point peninsula is an especially
> attractive outdoor experience for those plagued by blackflies at home.
> But deer ticks put in an appearance last May, and visitors are advised to
> avoid the tall grass and take precautions.  Wear waterproof footwear and
> bring breakfast/lunch/dinner, beverage, and binoculars.  This is a
> friendly, cooperative venture, and visitors help check nets, meet other
> birders, and bird around the Site (where over 180 species have been
> recorded) when the banding is slow.  We're also looking for vehicles to
> help transport the banding station back to Elizabethtown on or about the
> 24th.  Please let me know at the station if you'd be willing to help,
> since I'll be out of telephone and e-mail contact from May 9th.  And if
> you attend early this year, you'll undoubtedly return for more banding,
> banter, and birds.     --Mike Peterson, Elizabethtown
>
>
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