Out There: Bird Count

In retrospect, it would have been embarrassing not to have noticed the black vulture and its 6-foot wingspan soaring over the Boscobel ticket office. 

It was just before noon on May 17 and five members of the Putnam Highlands Audubon Society were halfway through the annual Birdathon, in which Audubon chapters race to see how many species they can identify within 24 hours. 

“It’s like a walkathon but with birds,” said PHAS President Sean Camillieri. Donors make pledges, and each chapter sets a goal (for PHAS, it was 100 birds). Each Audubon chapter also can define boundaries. One year, the Putnam Highlands chapter said the entire state was fair game; some members went to Long Island and Central Park. This year the birding was restricted to Putnam County.

To lock down maximum funding, you must put in maximum effort. The team’s 18-hour schedule, which began at 4 a.m., required military precision to reach 16 viewing locations. A brief but intense rainstorm had put the group behind by the time it pulled into Boscobel. Camillieri ran into the ticket office to secure six passes. It was while we were standing around, and not technically birdwatching, that the vulture flew overhead. 

It’s a common bird — there may be one near your house right now, feasting on a flattened squirrel — but the group hadn’t seen one, so it added to the total.

As if to drive home the point that there’s no timeouts during Birdathon, a Cooper’s hawk swooped behind us while we walked with our gear toward the bluff overlooking Constitution Marsh. Another point.

The event takes place in mid-May because it’s the height of spring migration. Some species, such as Baltimore orioles and scarlet tangiers, are moving here for the summer. Others are making pit stops on their way to the Adirondacks or Canada. It’s also the heat of mating season, and the birds are desperately trying to be noticed. Their plumage is more colorful, their songs louder. When they return to the Highlands in the fall, they’ll be duller, quieter and easier to miss. 

Constitution Marsh at low tide was a chance to spot shorebirds, which is more difficult in Putnam than in Dutchess or Westchester, said Anthony Macchiarola. Because of the rain delay, the team arrived as the tide was rising. Time was of the essence. 

An osprey was seen at the far end of the marsh. The team deduced that a tiny black dot in the distance was a fish crow and not an American crow. It turns out the fish crow’s nasally call was the giveaway. Under the rules of Birdathon, you can identify a bird by its call even if you can’t see it.

The Putnam Highlands team defied the stereotype of birding as an activity for retired folks. Four of the five members were younger men. Camillieri is a wildlife biologist in New York City, so the hobby comes naturally. Steve Rappaport came to it through photography: He was taking photos of hummingbirds in his yard and wanted to know who the other birds were that flitted across his lens.. Macchiarola is a Carmel High School teacher who built campus bird feeders with his students and became curious about the many species that visited. 

In the end, the men observed 114 species over the course of the day (see dub.sh/phas-checklist), including a cerulean warbler, a threatened species that is known to have a half-dozen seasonal nests near the Washburn Trail parking lot.

The day was a success, although Camillieri said participation in the Birdathon has declined. Birding enjoyed a boom during the pandemic, but people have returned to their routines, he said. 

That’s bad for birding and for science. The team’s observations were shared with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, providing data for researchers around the world. With cuts to federal funding for scientific research, as well as grants to research universities, citizen science projects like Birdathon have become more important. They might be the only large-scale projects undertaken for the foreseeable future. 

If you hung up your binoculars after the pandemic, consider this a call to return to the flock. The birds, and your country, need you.