Azure Mountain hike

The Azure Mountain diversion went off without a hitch despite a weather forecast of "scattered thunder showers." It was pretty warm, made warmer by the high humidity. Joe Petrick and Jane Vivala joined "interpreter-in-training", Marianne Hebert up the short mountain hike. Normally you can see the high peaks from the summit, but on such a hazy day, we couldn't see past the nearest local peaks.



We all had a good time, despite the overly active black flies. Wildflowers were glorious. Jane and Marianne had fun with identifying a variety of native flowers. Lunch at the nearby Deer Valley restaurant included two house specialties: poutine and deep fried cheesecake!



Jane volunteered her services to help prevent this glacial erratic from rolling down the mountain!

See more photos on the SUNYLA Flikr groups.

Thank You Everyone!

The conference is finally over. I'm back at home, heading out to the garden to relax and rejuvenate. I want to send a thanks to all the conference attendees for making this conference such a success. We heard at lunch yesterday, how much work goes into the conference: the Conference Committee, Local Arrangements Committee, Presenters, Facilitators, and I thank them all too. It takes a "SUNYLA village" to raise an annual event.

But, what made this conference so great was the participatory nature of the attendees. Not only did you socialize, blog and attend presentations, you drummed, sang, danced and played a myiad of games. I truly expected the Talent Night to be a pretty good "gong" show. What we got was outstanding performances by outstanding talents. Who knew? Everyone embraced the spirit of "making a racket" and made the conference a fun place to be. THANK YOU ALL!

Wishing everyone a safe journey home and a relaxing weekend. See you next year!

Birdwatching Diversion

When I suggested you'd be amazed with the bird watching diversion, I was thinking you'd be amazed that anyone (i.e. me and 4 other SUNYLA members) would get up at 6:00am to go bird watching. Truth is, I had no idea bird watching could be so amazing!

The Clarkson University Great Blue Heron rookerie was hopping with activity. It surpassed anything I have ever seen on nature documentaries like "Sunrise Earth." Our thanks to local bird experts Joan Collins and Mary Beth Warburton who led us on a most fascinating journey. Mary Beth brought her scope so we could see zoom in on the birds in their nests. Both gave a running commentary on the birds we saw and heard as we walked through the woods and watched the marsh from the observation desk. In addition to the birds listed below we observed a muskrat munching on water lily leaves, heard many bull frogs and volunteered our services as a breakfast buffet for many mosquitoes. I wish I had brought my camera, but I'll be heading back to the marsh this weekend and will post those photos later.

Thanks to Joan Collins who just emailed me with her official account of the outing, posted to the Northern New York Birds email list earlier this morning:

6/12/08 Clarkson University Trails, Potsdam (6:30 to 7:30 a.m., weather was cool and clear, with calm winds)

Marianne Hebert, SUNY Potsdam Librarian, organized a pre-breakfast bird walk for several people attending the SUNY Librarians Association conference. Mary Beth Warburton and I led a hike to the observation tower overlooking a large swamp with a Great Blue Heron rookery. The short trail (~ 1/2 mile) leading to the swamp passes through a mature deciduous forest with one large open area near the beginning of the trail. We found 31 species during the short walk, including 6 flycatcher and 5 warbler species. Here is a complete list of the birds found:

Wood Duck - pair flying over

Hooded Merganser - female that flew in and briefly landed in the water near us

Great Blue Heron - we had wonderful views of all the nest sites filled with young. We also observed an adult carry a stick to one of the nests. It gave the stick to the other adult perched on the nest. The second adult placed the stick in the nest which had 3 young.

Green Heron - pair observed flying into the swamp together. They briefly perched in a dead snag then dropped down out of sight.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Eastern Wood-Pewee - several

Alder Flycatcher

Least Flycatcher

Eastern Phoebe - adults with 3 young perched in trees near the tower begging for food

Great Crested Flycatcher

Eastern Kingbird - in the clearing area chasing Amer. Crows

Red-eyed Vireo

Blue Jay

Amer. Crow

Tree Swallow

White-breasted Nuthatch

Hermit Thrush

Amer. Robin

European Starling - several in the swamp

Cedar Waxwing

Yellow Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Ovenbird

Northern Waterthrush - at least 3

Common Yellowthroat

Song Sparrow

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Red-winged Blackbird

Common Grackle

Baltimore Oriole - adults feeding young in a nest over the observation tower!

Amer. Goldfinch

Diverting!

Today's fantastic experience: hiking Stone Valley with some other librarians after a huge thunderstorm blew through yesterday. We had to take a different path than I had planned, due to some dramatically downed power lines, but the other side of the river, though downed as well, was more accessible, and because it has the dam access on it, had been cleared by the power company. It was gorgeous, moving very fast, and definitely an adventure as we climbed over some fallen trees, looped around others, and watched the water just cruise on past us on a gorgeous summer day. And we even talked a bit about librarianship. It was totally professional networking. TOTALLY. Thanks to Gerry, Barbara, and Joanne for going along for the adventure!

Reminder: New Member Orientation

Attention New Members! Please join us in front of Barrington Hall (the Student Union) Wednesday, June 11th at 5:30pm. Meet fellow new members and get oriented to the conference. We’ll all walk over to the BBQ together. Then, after dinner, we’ll meet back up and walk to the membership social where you’ll have the chance to win fabulous new member prizes.