Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society

10/24/2026

In late September, Kathryn Davino visited Boulder, Colorado and became quite enamored with the resident Black-billed Magpies. Their teal-blue tail feathers are as long as the body of the bird and appear to float behind in flight.

From the Cornell Lab: Black-billed Magpies are familiar and entertaining birds of western North America. They sit on fenceposts and road signs or flap across rangelands, their white wing patches flashing and their very long tails trailing behind them. This large, flashy relative of jays and crows is a social creature, gathering in numbers to feed at carrion. They’re also vocal birds and keep up a regular stream of raucous or querulous calls.

10/23/2026

Michelle Brigman captured a photo of a Yellow-rumped Warbler sporting fall plumage. We may not see these birds again here in the north for 6 or 7 months!

Yellow-rumped Warblers eat mainly insects in the summer, including caterpillars and other larvae, leaf beetles, bark beetles, weevils, ants, scale insects, aphids, grasshoppers, caddisflies, craneflies, and gnats, as well as spiders. They also eat spruce budworm, a serious forest pest, during outbreaks. On migration and in winter they eat great numbers of fruits, particularly bayberry and wax myrtle, which their digestive systems are uniquely suited among warblers to digest. The habit is one reason why Yellow-rumped Warblers winter so much farther north than other warbler species.

10/22/2026

The final Hawk ID workshop will take place at 10:30am on Monday, October 26 at the DOAS Sanctuary, 52 Grange Hall Road Spur, Oneonta, NY 13820.

The Franklin Mountain Hawk Watch continues to need volunteer hawk counters. If you have an interest in learning raptor identification, we can help you develop those skills. We will also teach you how to determine if a bird is migrating. This season we have scheduled 3 ID workshops for beginners at different times in the migration.

Registration is required for the Monday workshops. If you have an interest, please contact Tom Salo at [email protected].

10/21/2026

Hurry! Hurry! Our ANNUAL BIRD SEED SALE fundraiser is soon coming to a close! The order deadline is Sunday, October 25.

Place your order online at https://doas.us/2026-bird-seed-sale/

10/20/2026

Rambling with Rick Bunting...His feeder had a visit from both a male and female Red-bellied Woodpecker recently. Here they are posing for their lovely feeder portraits.

10/19/2026

From Landa Palmer's lens...
"We have had a wet field that the Kildeer have been hanging out in for a couple of weeks. I kept seeing a small bird that I really couldn’t get my eye on because they blended in so much. I finally got my camera on one, and lo and behold it was an American Pipit."

To learn more about the American Pipit and listen to their long-winded vocalizations, visit https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Pipit/overview

10/18/2026

Fishing wildlife officials warned people not to feed the eagle at the dock, because he kept asking for more to feed his friend.

People near the dock were told to stop feeding the newly released eagle after he started camping around the area every afternoon. At first, everyone thought he was hungry. But then they noticed what he was doing with the fish.

Instead of eating everything himself, he would grab one and fly toward the water to drop it near the beluga whale that had been lingering around the dock.

Officials believe the eagle may have copied what his caretakers did for him during rehabilitation, tossing fish the same way he had once been fed.

Now every time someone gives him fish, he comes back asking for more. Not for himself. For the whale.

Wildlife officials said they understand why people think it’s sweet, but they warned that feeding wild animals can quickly become dangerous for both humans and the animals involved.

The eagle was released back into the wild, but somehow still remembered what it felt like to be fed, and started doing it for someone else.

Fishing wildlife officials warned people not to feed the eagle at the dock, because he kept asking for more to feed his friend. People near the dock were tol...

10/17/2026

Every fall since 1989, someone has been watching...
From August through December, the Franklin Mountain Hawkwatch counts the hawks, eagles, falcons, and vultures migrating south over Oneonta. For more than 35 years, Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society volunteers have kept this daily count going, contributing significantly to national data on fall raptor migration trends. Franklin Mountain is especially known for its Golden Eagles.

Every fall since 1989, someone has been watching From August through December, the Franklin Mountain Hawk

10/16/2026

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Thank you Brooke Gregory for these beautiful shots of Sandy (Barred Owl) and Chaos (Common Raven) during a recent presentation at the DOAS Open House. It was a great day and we all enjoyed sharing some knowledge with everyone in attendance.

If you would like to meet all of our birds in person please consider helping us out for cleaning day.
When: October 24 from 10-4
Where: Falcon Heart Rescue, 121 Eastwood Drive, Herkimer
We will be taking everyone out of the shed and installing a new floor, cleaning the cages and putting everyone back. If you can help - even for an hour or two - please respond here or text Deb at 315-717-2042.
Thank you in advance!

10/15/2026

From NYPIRG Today re Data Centers:
The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) opened a public comment window seeking input on the environmental and grid impacts of hyperscale data centers. The public window closes on October 20, 2026, giving us less than one more week to submit a comment on the plan. We need to generate comments to ask Governor Hochul to extend the window to January 17, 2027, giving New Yorkers enough time to learn about the proposal and make educated comments regarding impacts to local communities, and so we can conduct a formal comment drive.

Please work to submit comments this week, as the deadline is rapidly approaching. Comments should be submitted at https://documents.dps.ny.gov/public/Comments/PublicComments.aspx?MatterCaseNo=26-00120

SAMPLE
"I (Individual/organization) am writing to urge you to allow more time for the public to engage in the process regarding the Draft Scope for the Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) related to Executive Order 62. Please extend the public comment period to at least 120 days. Additionally, please host both in-person and online public hearings that are publicized widely and well in advance of the dates. The risks of rushing this process, as the current timeline would do, are too great to not allow the concerns of New Yorkers to be adequately heard. Thank you"

Department of Public Service