birdsoup

Only one real surprise at the EagleFest.  The mild weather attracted a lot of people on Saturday (about 4,000 attendees)  However, it also kept many eagles farther north.   Last year there were about 110 Bald Eagles between Croton Point Park and the Bear Mountain Bridge.   This year, maybe 20-25.  

I was the trip leader for the first BirdWalk of the EagleFest and we were fortunate to spot two Bald Eagles.  The mid-morning walk was most productive yielding 8 Bald Eagles, 1 N. Harrier and a handful of E. Bluebirds.

My biggest surprise of the day was the following explanation as to how Croton Point was the birthplace of the modern field guide. 

In 1931 Roger Tory Peterson, who was studying art in New York City, was an active member of the Bronx Bird Club.  The club made a field trip to Croton Point.  During their trip Roger identified a flock of Pippits as they flew overhead.  That greatly impressed another member of the club, Bill Vogt, who asked “How did you know what they were?”  In those days birders still identified most birds by shotgun, shooting them and then examining them closely while holding their dead bodies.  Roger explained his technique of looking for key field marks as a good way to ID birds without shooting them.  Vogt, who was a successful drama critic and novelist, was amazed and encouraged Peterson to put his technique into book form.  “I can get it published for you” he told Roger.

Peterson went to work and three years later the first modern Field Guide to Birds was ready.  Vogt had to contact several publishers before Houghton-Mifflin agreed to publish the book.  You have to remember that 1934 was the height of the great depression so publishing any book was a risk.   Amazingly, the first press run of 2,000 copies sold out in less than a week.  Additional copies were printed immediately and Peterson Field Guide to Birds has been continuously in print ever since (almost 70 years), selling millions of copies.   The price of the first edition was $2.75.  I checked the internet and found you can still buy a copy for $600-$700.

And, if you believe this version, the idea for the first modern field guide, the guide credited with making birding accessible to the general public, was first hatched at Croton Point Park.