Inside the Old Forge Library, six-year-old Ethan Honsinger raises a pair of binoculars to his eyes. “I see a moose!” he says. He’s right—a stuffed toy of the largest mammal in the Adirondacks rests on a bookshelf. Ethan, his eight-year-old sister Aislynn, and their parents Sarah and Burt are there to check out a backpack with Vortex Viper HD 8X42 binoculars and two field guides, Sibley Birds East and Adirondack Birding, along with a tip sheet and field notebook.
The backpack is part of the Adirondack Land Trust’s Birding for All program launched in 2022. A Northern New York Audubon Cullman Grant provided initial funding, and the Glasser Foundation and other generous donors have enabled Birding for All to grow. Each backpack and its contents exceeds $725 in value.
The program expands access to birding by removing cost barriers to participation. Eight Adirondack libraries now have Birding for All backpacks available for their patrons: the Au Sable Forks Free Library, Belden Noble Memorial Library in Essex, Lake Placid Public Library, Keene Valley Library, Old Forge, Paine Memorial Free Library in Willsboro, Saranac Lake Free Library, and Wadhams Free Library.
When the Honsingers visited Old Forge three years ago for Burt’s job interview, seeing an adult loon with two chicks aboard left an impression. Burt is now a teacher and Sarah a librarian at the local school. Today, the family heads to a pond east of town. Aislynn leads the way through firs and along water’s edge, looking for a bald eagle. While bird sightings elude the siblings, they flap their arms and call out “Caw! CAW!” to display their avian knowledge.
The family heads to the town waterfront, where white-tailed deer with twin spotted fawns meander nearby. Ethan and Aislynn pass the binoculars back and forth for a closer look before turning their focus to a mallard family. They aim the binoculars one last time, future conservation champions guided by nature.
Photo by Kurt Gardner. Aislynn Honsinger and her mom, Sarah, look for feathered neighbors in Old Forge.