29 Summer 2016 LOCALadk Magazine
When I heard a non-boreal bird call from the nearby woods, I
made a few mouth calls, and three Tom turkeys walked right
out onto the bog mat! And, Spring Pond Bog was the first
place a palm warbler was found nesting in New York during
the 1980 Breeding Bird Atlas. They have spread to most of the
bogs in the Adirondacks since then. Please contact the Nature
Conservancy to obtain a gate pass, access includes 11 miles of
dirt road but it is worth it.
2. Ferd's Bog has a 500 foot boardwalk, and was built
in 1998. It is named after Ferdinand LaFrance, an avid birder
from Syracuse who had a camp not far from the bog. When he
visited the bog, he saw most of the boreal birds. He soon led
trips for Syracuse Audubon, and his guests talked about "the
bog Ferd took us to." It eventually was named Ferd's Bog.
3. Paul Smith's College Visitor Interpretive Center, (the
VIC), has the Barnum Bog with the Boreal Life trail. It's just
north of the college on Route 30.
4. The Silver Lake Bog, owned by The Nature Conservan-
cy, has a nature trail through the middle of the bog on a board
walk which continues to an overlook of Silver Lake. There is
trailhead parking off the Union Falls Road.
Culleen Doolittle
Carl Heilman
