Spring Migration

A welcome sign of spring has been evident lately in the large flocks of geese passing overhead. The area the college is located in happens to be on a major migration route for many birds, not just waterfowl. Many warblers and other songbirds pass through here, and we are also on one of the main raptor migration pathways. You can read about these things via books in our catalog, articles in databases like ScienceDirect and BioOne, and in special resources like Birds of North America. Or, you could go outside and look up :-)

If you want to go further afield Braddocks Bay in the neighboring town of Greece is a hawkwatch site, and Luke Tiller, who leads the hawkwatch, recently arrived to manage another season. To the west are several large wildlife refuges maintained by the state and federal governments. They provide stopping places for migrating birds, and have many year round residents. This past weekend at the main parking lot off the Lewiston Rd. in the Iroquois NWR for example were hundreds of Canadian Geese, dozens of Tundra Swans, and the local bald eagle was there as well. Shown here is a "kettle" of broad winged hawks at Braddocks Bay; when conditions are right you can see migrating raptors in numbers like those here!