Back in the USA - Ithaca, New York

The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca

 Two weeks ago I started a two week long tour supported by Spain's Extremadura Tourist Board www.birdinginextremadura.com and accompanied by the Tourist Board's Vanesa Palacios. The idea was to give a string of talks about the Extremedura region delivered by Vanesa and cocktail of urban birding stories (also featuring a touch of urban Extremadura) given by me in New York State, Cape May in New Jersey and in the Rio Grande Valley area in Texas. It was a journey that held the promise of meeting up with old and new friends plus plenty of birds.

After the customary frosty welcome from the US Passport Control things improved rapidly once we left Newark Airport, NYC to make the 3 hour journey northeast to Ithaca, New York State to deliver a talk at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

 Part of the amazing mural depicting some of the world's birds within the Lab's auditorium

 TUB with some of the Cornell Crew and Vanesa Palacios

 TUB with my great buddy, Matt Young

The talk was well attended and went well. The remainder of our two days in Ithaca were spent birding in the company of Cornell's Matt Young. We saw a whole slew of birds including glimpsing and hearing my first Pileated Woodpecker.

A confiding Great Blue Heron