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Running south to north for more than a hundred miles, Lake Champlain has always lured travelers. Explorers, traders, revolutionaries, tourists. And also birds.

As a corridor within the Atlantic Flyway, the Champlain Valley is an important migration route. More than 300 species wing their way each year through this broad valley, which is bordered by the Green Mountains to the east and the Adirondacks to the west. Some 200 species nest here.

Geography alone does not explain the valley’s avian appeal. For centuries, the fertile soil has attracted farmers who have created a thriving habitat for birds: Hawks and owls hunt for mice in the fields and songbirds enjoy an abundance of seed. Ducks and marsh birds like Lake Champlain’s swampy estuaries and bays. Colonial nesting birds such as cormorants and cattle egrets breed on some of the islands that dot the lake.

“You have a unique mixture and richness of habitats necessary for birds on the move,” observes Robert Inslerman, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
Now, a flock of birders is trying to turn the Champlain Valley into a birding destination for people. They have identified more than 100 spots where people can see birds in their natural habitats and mapped out driving routes between the destinations. So far, the birding trail covers 300 miles of roadway in New York and Vermont, making it the first of its kind to link two states.

“We’re trying to overcome this idea there are New York birds and Vermont birds,” remarks Janet Kennedy of Lake Champlain Byways, one of several state and private organizations working on the project. The group got the idea from similar birding trails in Texas and Florida.

Photo by Susan Waters

Great blue heron

Over the next few years, the organizers plan to install signs at most of the birding sites. The more elaborate ones will discuss the natural history of the site and the birds that frequent it. This spring, the boosters will publish a color brochure with pictures of birds, tips on birdwatching and information about bird habitat.

One of the major goals is to draw tourists. It’s estimated that 60 million Americans are birdwatchers, and many of them use their vacation to pursue their avocation. But it’s also hoped that the birding trail will raise awareness about land conservation, since the decline of many birds and other wildlife is linked to habitat loss. Rich MacDonald of the Adirondack Nature Conservancy notes that birds often serve as a barometer of ecological health.

The best times to observe birds are spring and fall, as temperature, weather and sunlight trigger their internal clocks and tell them to start flying. You always know it’s spring when flocks of red-winged blackbirds arrive. From September through November, you can see white clouds of snow geese migrate by the thousand from northern Canada and sojourn here before continuing to the Southeastern seaboard.

Until the lake freezes, sunny winter days can also be a good time for birding. Some birds of the far north, including snow buntings and rough-legged hawks, migrate to the Champlain Valley for the winter to avoid the Arctic chill and hunt for food. “As hard as it is to believe, they come here because to them this is a temperate climate,” says Mary Jeanne Packer of Ghostwriters Communications, a Vermont ad agency that is spearheading the project.

Bald eagles can often be seen fishing at Normandie Point near Westport and Whallons Bay near Essex. Common loons and rafts of large ducks, such as scaups and mergansers, can also be seen until the lake freezes in midwinter and they travel south.

Beginning birders look for color, size and shape to identify birds. More experienced birders look for nuances in flight pattern and listen carefully to the songs. “A lot of times you can learn birds by hearing them first: that’s a common yellow-throat, witchety, witchety, witchety,” says photographer Gary Randorf, who listens to bird tapes in his car. “After a while it’s like knowing the voice of a friend on the telephone. All the songs are different.”

To get you started, we’ve researched seven places on the trail, listed here from south to north.

TICONDEROGA MARSH
Marshes are some of the richest habitat for birding because of the abundance of food and nest-building material. The best way to bird Ti Marsh is by canoe, starting at the boat launch in downtown Ticonderoga and paddling east past Fort Ticonderoga. The marsh is just south of the fort. In the bay’s nooks and crannies look for least bitterns, sandpipers and common moorhens. Listen for the distinctive, raspy chattery call of the marsh wren.

CROWN POINT
In Colonial times, both the French and British built forts on this strategic peninsula where Lake Champlain metamorphoses from a narrow channel into a glittering expanse of water. Today birders armed with binoculars roam the ruins of the forts, watching for swallows, vireos, flycatchers, kestrels, killdeer, peregrine falcons and more than a dozen species of warblers. Mike Peterson of High Peaks Audubon has been netting and banding migrating birds in the hedgerows at Crown Point for 25 years. One yellow warbler has showed up for the past nine years. “It’s not much bigger than a thumb,” he says, “Yet it’s made nine trips to South America and back.”

WESTPORT BOAT LAUNCH

Photos by Charles H. Willey

Wood duck

This is a good place to watch ducks that gather in Northwest Bay. November and December is the best time to view ducks and other waterfowl; as ice starts to form on the lake, they move farther from shore. Thousands of common goldeneye can be seen as well as the rare Barrow’s goldeneye. Mike Peterson has watched mallards and other ducks diving for zebra mussels—an exotic species regarded as a nuisance—at the bottom of the lake. “There’s a lot more zebra mussels than duck weed or algae in the winter,” he said, explaining the unorthodox feeding behavior.

WEBB-ROYCE SWAMP
Dubbed the “Magic Triangle” by bird-watchers, this swampland has dried up somewhat in recent years. At one time, there were at least 20 great blue heron nests dotting the vast wetland. It was also a great place to view ducks, osprey and black-crown night herons. The state bought the 305-acre preserve in 1994 and, following a public debate, decided to allow trapping. Birders blame the shrinking of the swamp on the subsequent loss of dam-building beavers. Mike Peterson once drove by and saw a raven feeding on a dead beaver. Although the osprey and blue heron nests are gone, Canada geese, mallards and American wigeons can still be seen in spring, when the clay-soil swamp floods with rain. The swamp and neighboring fields remain excellent places for seeing hawks and owls.

COON MOUNTAIN PRESERVE
This 246-acre preserve is owned by the Adirondack Nature Conservancy. Conservationists are trying to link this piece of land with the nearby Split Rock Range to create a continuous wildlife corridor. A mile-long trail leads from the parking lot to the isolated summit. Ravens nest on the cliffs, and hawks and turkey vultures can often be seen soaring over the farm fields below, effortlessly riding the thermals.

Map by Nancy Bernstein

LAKE CHAMPLAIN PALISADES
Located between Essex and Westport, these cliffs of the Split Rock Range rise 900 feet above the lake. It’s possible to reach the cliffs by foot trail over state land, but during June and July, birders like to watch from the water as peregrine falcons dive and screech while performing their courtship rituals. “It’s like aerial combat,” says DEC’s Bob Inslerman. Sometimes you’ll see a falcon snatch a small bird midair. Bald eagles also can be seen. Naturalist Gary Randorf is convinced that they are nesting in the vicinity. One day he spotted a young eagle sitting in a white pine. “It looked ruffly and innocent, like a recently fledged bird,” he said. Split Rock Mountain, at the northern tip of the palisades, is a good place to watch migrating hawks. These raptors travel along the foothills of the Adirondacks and Green Mountains to catch the thermal updrafts.

AUSABLE MARSH
You’ll find not only a large marsh, but a floodplain forest and several other habitats in the fertile delta near the mouth of the Ausable River. The state has designated 580 acres as a wildlife management area. From a new observation platform in the marsh, you can watch osprey, great blue herons, paddle ducks, wood ducks and teal. You should be able to see two osprey nests. In the more wooded areas look for downy and hairy woodpeckers, warblers and red-winged blackbirds. The platform sits off the entrance road to the Ausable Point Public Campground. You can put in a canoe at the campground to explore the delta by water. There also is a one-mile foot trail that leads into the marsh from Route 9.