Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.

After our awesome birding on Bigelow Road Will and I decided to head up to the Paul Smiths Visitor Interpretive Center, which was just a bit north and west of our location. They have good feeders set up and a previous visit had netted me Evening Grosbeaks, to say nothing of the fact that the volunteers often have good information as to what birds have been seen where.

On this day, sadly, there was nothing terribly exciting coming to the feeders and the volunteers had heard nothing about any of our target birds. Nonetheless, we were undaunted. Rather than rush right back out we decided to watch the feeders for a bit and were rewarded for our efforts with Black-capped Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches, a Blue Jay, a Hairy Woodpecker, and a White-breasted Nuthatch. It was not epic but it was nice to sit inside and watch the birds for a bit before getting back out on the road. Especially entertaining was watching the birds trying to get the suet off of the hanging log feeder.

Black-capped Chickadee with suet

Hairy Woodpecker going for suet

Black-capped Chickadee in flight

Black-capped Chickadee with sunflower seed

Come back soon for what will be a much more exciting part 4 to the Epic Birding Weekend!

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.