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Blue bird outside Mohonk

Birding & Spring Nature

May 14 – 16, 2021

As springtime awakens, Mohonk is the perfect place for bird watchers of all levels.

Join us on Birding & Spring Nature weekend with environmental educators for hikes, bird walks, workshops, and an exploration of the natural world as it awakens on our mountaintop.

Birding & Spring Nature program is led by Kurt Weiskotten, who has been the program leader since 1985.

Availability is limited. For reservations, please call .

SAMPLE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Birding Keyes at Mohonk

First Walk: Lakeside Birds

Meet the leaders and fellow participants on this casual search along the lake for the first birds of the weekend. An easy walk along carriage paths through the hemlock woods below Sky Top and back along the Mohonk Lake shoreline.

Birders Q&A

Take advantage of this chance for an open discussion with the leaders who have over a century of birding experience combined.

Birding in the Hudson Valley

In her new book “Birding the Hudson Valley,” author Kathryn Schneider provides tips, guidance, and encouragement for bird enthusiasts of all skill levels to leave their backyards and explore bird life beyond the bird feeder. Kathryn will discuss her background as an ornithologist, teacher, and conservationist, and review the life journey that led her to spend three years writing her first book. The book is full of useful information and includes species accounts and directions to more than eighty birding locations throughout the Hudson Valley.

Birding Keyes at Mohonk

Early Morning Bird Walks

The leaders invite all birders, of all levels, on a variety of early morning jaunts in search of spring migrants that dropped in overnight. More species of birds occupy the property during this weekend than any other time of year, so don’t miss the feathery excitement.

Long Walk To Yeaple Cabin

Enjoy a mostly down-hill ramble off the mountaintop through changing habitats in search of a wide variety of birds. Historic Yeaple Cabin will be visited along the way. Van transportation back to the house in time for lunch.

What Did That Bird Say?

This session with Mike Losito is designed for beginning and even intermediate birders wishing to incorporate listening skills into their everyday birding experience. Methods covered include the use of phonetics, diagrammatic symbols, and vocabulary descriptors in plain English. After a half-hour introductory session, participants will apply their listening techniques on a casual stroll through the Mountain House grounds.

Underwater Creatures Of Lily Pond

Help Wayne Gall explore Lily Pond with dip nets looking for creatures such as dragonfly and damselfly nymphs, water tigers and water scorpions, giant case-making caddisfly larvae, eastern newts, and more.

A 100-Year Old Bird Walk

Birds were known by very different names decades and centuries ago, and during this casual bird walk with Kurt, only the historic names of birds will be used. Come along in search of Devil Downheads, Yawkerbirds, and Silver Tongues.

Live Snake Showcase

Hang out for an hour with Mike as he talks about the biology and ecology of North American snakes. Mike’s collection of harmless live snakes from SUNY Cobleskill will be on hand to assist in this fun and factual presentation.

Select Hummingbirds of North America

Learn about one of the most interesting groups of birds found in the New World. This indoor program will explore the lives of some of the species found here in the U.S. and Canada and what makes these creatures so utterly fascinating!

Ornithological Mysteries, Frauds, And Conundrums!

This presentation by Greg Budney will delve into useless, yet utterly fascinating stories from the ornithological world! Who was Colonel Meinertzhagen? How is the Hudson River Valley connected to a bizarre museum bird specimen heist in England?! Improbably, what Asian bird is among bird specimens collected by FDR as a young boy?

Cardinals

Early Morning Bird Walks

Early morning is a magical time at Mohonk! Join the leaders once again as we search along woodland paths for any migrating songbirds that may have moved north during the night.

Birds Up Close

Bird banding dates to 1595, when Henry IV attached a metal ring around the leg of a Peregrine Falcon that was found 24 hours later in Malta (about 1,350 miles away). Join Mike for a hands-on demonstration on the use of mist nets and bird banding, and have a unique opportunity to meet some of our familiar backyard birds up-close.

Big Hour Birding Blitz

Make a team or join another and head out around the Mohonk grounds for an hour to record the most birds possible – most species gets a prize!

Availability is limited. For reservations, please call .

MEET OUR PROGRAM LEADERS

Kurt Weiskotten

Kurt Weiskotten

Kurt has devoted his life to birds and nature in all forms and enjoys spending time on ocean shores and Adirondack mountain tops. He has a BS and MS from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse and spent a summer deep in the north woods of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan studying boreal flora and ornithology. His furthest travels have taken him to Mt. Everest base camp and Mandalay. He has worked as a freelance artist, environmental educator, wetland scientist, and is currently an environmental scientist with Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. Consultants in Albany.

Michael Losito

Mike Losito, Ph.D.

Mike is a Certified Wildlife Biologist and Professor of Wildlife Management at the State University of New York at Cobleskill where he has been teaching ornithology for 25 years. He has led students on field trips to more than 17 states as well as Canada and Panama. He received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2015 and the University of Maine Professional Excellence Alumni Award in 2018. He is a Master Bird Bander and a Life Member of the National Geographic Society.

 

Kids Nature Courses - Mohonk Mountain House

Wayne Gall, Ph.D.

Wayne has led numerous nature programs at Mohonk Mountain House. He served as the Buffalo Museum of Science’s first Administrator/Naturalist of Tifft Nature Preserve from 1983-1987, then Research Fellow and Curator of Entomology for the museum from 1987-2001. From 2001-2016 he was Western Regional Entomologist for the NYS Department of Health. Since May, 2016, Wayne has been Entomologist (Identifier) for US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Wayne earned his MS in Entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and PhD in Zoology from the University of Toronto.

Greg Budney

Greg Budney

Greg is a former Audio Curator of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds, the world’s largest collection of wildlife sound recordings. He is also a leading bird sound recordist and has produced numerous audio guides to sounds of North American birds. He has trained hundreds of biologists and citizen scientists in techniques for capturing the sounds of wildlife for research, conservation, and education.

Kathryn Schneider

Kathryn Schneider, Ph.D.

Kathryn Schneider, Ph.D. grew up in Claverack, New York and attended Cornell and Princeton universities, where she completed her Ph.D. She taught college courses in general biology and ornithology at the University of Richmond and later at Hudson Valley Community College. In 1986 she returned to Columbia County and for 14 years directed the NY Natural Heritage Program, a biodiversity inventory program run jointly by The Nature Conservancy and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. She is past President of the New York State Ornithological Association and currently co-chairs the Steering Committee for NY’s third Breeding Bird Atlas Project.

When you visit for Birding Spring Nature Weekend, your overnight package includes:

Meals

Daily Activities

Seasonal Activities

À la carte experiences available to overnight guests:

 

See full list of what’s included in your stay!

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