Life in the Finger Lakes MarApr 2017

M

FOUR SEASONS GARDEN • SONNENBERG CONSERVATORY • TOP TEN TROUT STREAMS

The Magazine for People Who Love New York State’s Wine Region

Since

2001

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LIFE IN THE FINGER LAKES

Raise a Puppy, Change a Life!, p. 30 • FLCC Viticulture, p. 48

March/April 2017

Top Ten Finger Lakes

Trout Streams page 42

A Four Seasons

Garden page 36

MARCH/APRIL 2017 • VOL. 17, NO. 2

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The Good Life in the heart of the

Finger Lakes

“I absolutely love being outdoors and there are 57 acres surrounding Ferris Hills with beautiful trails to walk on as well as a fitness room.�

Sybil AT

WEST LAKE

Independent and Enriched Senior Living

Let us wine & dine you. Please call today to schedule lunch and a tour.

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Since

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Volume 17, Number 2 • March/April 2017

Cover: Paul Sheedy of Camillus fishes the Marcellus Falls pool on Nine Mile Creek.

Read about the top ten trout streams in the Finger Lakes on page 42. Learn more about J. Michael Kelly’s book “Trout Streams of Central New York” on page 44.

Photo by J. Michael Kelly

This page: Gerald Kral’s four seasons garden in Rochester incorporates many statues and artworks to enhance his plantings and hardscapes. Read more about the garden in page 36.

Photo by Peter Blackwood

F E A T U R E S

24

30

36

42

These birds are perhaps the most amazing creature in the Finger Lakes Region.

by Derek Doeffinger

Meet the puppies that are being trained for Guiding Eyes for the Blind.

by Cindy Ruggieri

This Rochester garden looks great all year long.

by K.C. Fahy-Harvick

Fishing for trout in the region is world class.

by J. Michael Kelly

Vulture: Villians or Virtuoso?

MORE PHOTOS!

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Raise a Puppy, Change a Life

The Art of the Four Seasons Garden

MORE PHOTOS!

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Top Ten Finger Lakes Trout Streams

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eAc bu r u ab r yr oJvaenmubae Jrruy/l/D yF/e eg mu se t To Subscribe, visit LifeintheFingerLakes.com or callN800-344-0559

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a week! r our s y a d 7 n om fo Ope

ub.c ilpatricksp . .K w w w enu Visit complete m

Since

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D E P A R T M E N T S 4 My Own Words

thoughts from the editor

5 Letters reader feedback

6 Finger Lakes Map

areas of interest in this issue

8 Happenings

72

news and events

10 Cultured Serving lunch, dinner & late night.

Located downtown on the Ithaca Commons corner of Tioga/Seneca Streets

607-273-2632 www.kilpatrickspub.com

the better things in life

Fairport’s Inn on Church

22 Finger Lakes Funny

14 Outdoors

in the open air

Return of the lake sturgeon

stories to make you laugh

What’s in a name?

48 Enterprising

in business

Viticulture program at Finger Lakes Community College

52 Off the Easel

creating art

Pottery artist Julia e. Dean

58

narrative of the past

Conservatory restoration at Sonnenberg LIFL APP EXTRA!

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You can count on us. 46 Walking with history Guaranteed!

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a little bit of everything

Movie houses - old and new

58 Fruit of the Vine

History

Hilton Garden Inn - Ithaca 130 E. Seneca Street Ithaca, NY 14850 Tel: 607-277-8900 1-877-STAY-HGI www.ithaca.hgi.com

55 Nooks & Crannies

wine, spirits and brews

Winemaker Vinny Aliperti

71 Index of Advertisers 72 Outdoors

in the open air

Wacky, wonderful woodpeckers

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F O R YO U

NOW

O PE N

Exit 41 NYS Thruway, Waterloo, NY | delLagoResort.com

Must be 21 or older. For help with problem gambling call 877.8.HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369).

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My Own Words

thoughts from the editor

Of Birds and Puppies

A

nimals play a big part in our lives – probably more than we think. According to the ASPCA, “it is estimated that 70 to 80 million dogs and 74 to 96 million cats are owned in the United States.

Approximately 37 to 47 percent of all households in the United States have a dog, and 30 to 37 percent have a cat.” And this doesn’t include other animals that can be pets – such as birds, horses, snakes and turtles. The list goes on and on. But even beyond pets, humans clearly have a love affair with all kinds of animals.

For example, bird watching is a popular hobby in the United States.

As photo technology continues to improve, the number of people taking pictures of birds is increasing. I have a lot of Facebook and Instagram friends that love taking photos of birds – and many of the images are simply amazing!

In this issue, Jon Ulrich writes about woodpeckers in the Finger Lakes Region (page 72). There are six varieties common to this area, and they are fun birds to watch.

The pileated woodpecker is actually quite large, almost as big as a crow.

It flits from tree to tree and has an interesting call. And then there is the tiny downy woodpecker. This is the most common woodpecker. You have probably seen one near your bird feeder recently.

We go from pretty songbirds and woodpeckers to an animal that most people think is vile and disgusting. The turkey vulture is a much-maligned bird that serves an extremely important role in the ecosystem. They clean up the carrion that litters roads, woods and fields.

They’re like garbage men – essential members of society, taking care of things that most people don’t want

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to think about. Numerous times I’ve seen them soaring majestically through the sky, sometimes being mistaken for a more regal creature, like a bald eagle. Read more about this amazing bird in Derek Doeffinger’s article on page 24.

Fishermen look forward to the spring, when trout season gets under way. In this issue, we highlight 10 great spots to fish for trout. The article on page 42 is excerpted from J. Michael Kelly’s book “Trout Streams of Central New York.”

Another aquatic animal that doesn’t get much press is the lake sturgeon. It’s native to many waters in New York State, among them Cayuga Lake and the Seneca-Cayuga Canal. Lake Ontario and the Genesee River are also systems in which the prehistoric fish lives. Its status at the moment is threatened, but there is a successful restocking program currently in operation in the Genesee River. Go to John Adamski’s article on page 14 to learn more about this resilient fish.

We are interested in these wild animals, yet we love and cherish our pets. On page 30, Cindy Ruggieri shows us that raising puppies can be for more than pure pleasure. These dogs will assist people with visual impairment. The group Guiding Eyes for the Blind assists trainers in raising dogs that are not only workers, but also loving and gentle companions.

As I contemplate life in the Finger Lakes on a regular basis, I am reminded, through these articles, that animals play a big part in the lives of many people. I know I will go home tonight and spend a little quality time with my pet.

mark@lifeinthefingerlakes.com

~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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Please direct your responses to mark@lifeinthefingerlakes.com reader feedback

Y

our article struck home with me (“Good Bones,” January/ February 2017).

Since the early 1980s, my wife and I have been working to restore the old railroad depot here in Aurora. We purchased it and the land it sat on, as that property adjoined property we already owned. The depot was built in 1889 by the Lehigh Valley Railroad. It was closed in the early 1960s. Given the long, slow decline in fortunes of the LVRR, this old relic had been neglected for many years prior to its closing.

As we pondered what to do with limited resources, we more or less took it one step at a time – and time was the one thing we seemed to have plenty of. Good thing, too, as it gave us the opportunity to see that we truly had a unique structure worthy of saving. Suffice to say that while we are still a long way from completing our restoration, we have given it new life by creating a much-loved and utilized family gathering point, and saving a unique piece of local history. If it could speak, it would surely tell some amazing stories of a bygone era, when it was the transportation and communications center for our village and surrounding area.

Thanks again for your article, and for bringing attention to the value of these “old bones.”

– Tom Gunderson, Aurora

Letters

I

t was great to see the Star Theatre of Dansville featured in your January/February 2017 issue. It is a great local place to enjoy a movie. However, the article identifies the location of the Star Theatre incorrectly. It is located in Livingston County, not Steuben County.

— Barb Sundlof, North Dansville We have been notified by many readers about this mistake.

The magazine certainly regrets this error.

— Editor

T

hank you for your informative article on sheep and goat farming in the Finger Lakes. However, I think your story would have been better if you had included a section about folks raising sheep and cattle in our area that have a different farming model. These are smaller farms where sheep, goats and cattle are raised strictly on grass. The health benefits of grass fed animals raised in non-factory farm conditions are becoming important to many people , as are the issues surrounding grains raised by conventional farming methods.

— Steve Bisset

Detroit

ELM

Atlanta St. Petersburg/ Clearwater

Orlando/ Sanford

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Finger Lakes Regional Map 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

Camillus (p. 42, 55) Canandaigua (p. 18, 48) Fairport (p. 10) Geneva (p. 50)

areas of interest in this issue

9 Naples (p. 44) 10 North Syracuse (p. 22) 11 Pine Valley (p. 44) 12 Rochester (p. 30, 36)

Groton (p. 42) Homer (p. 42) Ithaca (p. 44, 52) Marcellus (p. 42)

13 Seneca Falls (p. 46) 14 Skaneateles ( p. 45) 15 Solvay (p. 23) 16 Syracuse (p. 22)

17 Wayland (p. 45) 18 Weedsport (p. 22)

From Oswego

Lake Ontario

Hilton

104

Webster

N

Brockport

104

Sodus

490

Baldwinsville

E. Rochester

3

Fairport

Macedon

Honeoye Falls

390

5

Avon

Lima

20

5

2

ONTARIO 20

Geneseo

20A

Mt. Morris

Geneva

LIVINGSTON

Waterloo

20

Cayuga

SENECA

7

Honeoye

Skaneateles 20

5

9

81 20

11

Ovid

Penn Yan

YATES

Wayland

11

CAYUGA

6 Homer

Interlaken

5

Groton

Waneta Lake

Canisteo

Bath

SCHUYLER

86

17

Painted Post

Elmira C H E M U N G Heights

Elmira

Addison

Dryden

Cayuga Heights

Ithaca

Candor

TIOGA

Waverly

Editor......................................................................Mark Stash ......................................... mark@lifeinthefingerlakes.com Senior Graphic Artist...........................Jennifer Srmack Graphic Artists.........................................Danielle Valente ........................................................................Maia VanOrman Associate Editor..............................................Tina Manzer Assistant Editors........................................ Jenn Bergin .............................................................................. J. Kevin Fahy ............................................................................Carol C. Stash

Contributors................................................ John Adamski ..................................................................... Derek Doeffinger .....................................................................Frances Emerson ............................................................................Jason Feulner ..................................................................................Rich Finzer ....................................................................K.C. Fahy-Harvick ..................................................................... James P. Hughes .........................................................................J. Michael Kelly .................................................................Nancy E. McCarthy ........................................................................... Randi Minetor ..........................................................................Cindy Ruggieri ................................................................................... Jon Ulrich .....................................................................Laurel C. Wemett

Life in the Finger Lakes is published by Fahy-Williams Publishing, Inc. and owned by Eleven Lakes Publishing, Inc. Co-owners: Mark S. Stash; Timothy J. Braden. Copyright© 2017 by Eleven Lakes Publishing, Inc. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission from the publisher.

TO SUBSCRIBE, RENEW OR CHANGE ADDRESS: write to Life in the Finger Lakes, P.O. Box 1080, Geneva, NY 14456, or call 315789-0458. Subscription rates: $16 for one year. Canada add $15 per year. Outside North America, add $35 per year. For renewal or change of address, include the address label from your most recent issue of Life in the Finger Lakes. For gift subscriptions, include your own name and address as well as those of gift recipients.

~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

Newark Valley

Van Etten

Owego

15

Editorial & Production

Marathon

From Binghamton

Spencer

Horseheads

Corning

McGraw 81

Montour Cayuta Lake Falls TOMPKINS Odessa

11

STEUBEN

Rexville

Burdett

Watkins Glen

86 17

Hornell

7

Lamoka Lake

Hammondsport

CORTLAND

11

Lansing

6

Avoca

Cortland

Trumansburg

Dundee

Prattsburgh 390

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20

9

Cohocton

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ONONDAGA

8

Branchport

17

The Finger Lakes Region of New York State

14

Auburn

Union Springs

Fayetteville Manlius

Moravia

Naples

From Jamestown

16

Aurora

390

Dansville

690

Syracuse 481

10

4

20A

5

4

2

1Solvay 15

Marcellus8

5

Seneca Falls 13

3

1

Nunda

5

Jordan

Weedsport

Newark

Clifton Springs Phelps

90

90

18

90

Bloomfield

Livonia Hemlock

Clyde

Victor Canandaigua

From Utica

10 481

Lyons

Palmyra

90

Caledonia

North 11 Syracuse

WAYNE

490 90

Oneida Lake

81

Rochester

12

490

F From Buffalo

From Watertown

Wolcott

104

104

Spencerport

Finger Lakes 1 Conesus 2 Hemlock 3 Canadice 4 Honeoye 5 Canandaigua 6 Keuka 7 Seneca 8 Cayuga 9 Owasco 10 Skaneateles 11 Otisco

Sodus Bay

Sodus Point

MONROE

86

17

From Binghamton

Editorial Office..............................................315-789-0458 Director of Advertising................................ Tim Braden ............................................. tim@lifeinthefingerlakes.com

For Advertising Inquiries - 800-344-0559 Rhonda Trainor........rhonda@lifeinthefingerlakes.com Della Mancuso................ della@lifeinthefingerlakes.com

315-585-6111 • Cell 917-751-2962

Online Sales Rick Kauder...........................................rkauder@fwpi.com

For Subscriptions Tricia McKenna.............................................315-789-0458 ................................subscribe@lifeinthefingerlakes.com Business Office............315-789-0458, 800-344-0559 Business Fax...................................................315-789-4263 Life in the Finger Lakes 171 Reed St. • P.O. Box 1080 • Geneva, NY 14456 LifeintheFingerLakes.com Serving the 14 counties of the Finger Lakes Region

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RIGHT IN THE FINGER LAKES

VISIT

Belhurst Castle takes you away to a place filled with rich history, beauty, and breathtaking views. Allow yourself to experience the rest and relaxation Belhurst provides with mouth-watering dining experiences, soothing spa treatments, award-winning wines and truly unique accommodations.

Find out why Belhurst Castle is a premier attraction in the Finger Lakes.

Call 315.781.0201 or visit www.belhurst.com to book your stay.

4069 West Lake Road, Geneva NY 001-023.LIFL_MARAPR_2017.indd 7

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ATTENTION:

Happenings

news and events

Parents & Grandparents March

Life in the Finger Lakes

3rd Annual

Children’s Photo Contest!

Deadline

Feb. 28, 2017 Age Groups • Up to 9 years old • 10 to 13 years old • 14 to 16 years old

Prizes

Mar 4…Animal Encounters – Feeding Series Saturdays 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. at Cayuga Nature Center.

Foxes and turtles and lizards. Oh my! Discover all of the Amazing Animal Ambassadors that call the Cayuga Nature Center home, every Saturday at noon!

Animal care staff will be on hand to answer questions as part of this series of public feedings.

1420 Taughannock Blvd.

Ithaca, NY 14853 priweb.org Mar 5…Bridal Show at Lakeside Country Club 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Over 30 exhibitors, gifts and prizes, food, wine and beer tastings. Open to the public - free admission. “Brides to Be” are to preregister at: bridalshowatlakeside@gmail.com.

145 Rte. 54 East Lake Road Penn Yan, NY 14527 lccpy.com Mar 18-19 & 25-26…Wohlschlegels Maple Weekend Open House Celebration Naples Maple Farm Pancake Breakfast 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Open House 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

8064 Coates Road Naples, NY 14512 585-775-7770 wohlschlegelsnaplesmaplefarm.com

• 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for best photo in each age group.

• Prize plaques will be awarded, along with publication in the May/June 2017 issue.

Photo Entries

Photos can be color or black and white.

Photos can be taken using a standard camera, and mobile devices such as smart phones, pads, notebooks and mp3 players.

Subject matter is to consist of landscape and nature shots, architectural, animals and any other appropriate subject that features the Finger Lakes Region in a positive light. The photos are to be taken within the 14-county Finger Lakes Region. Entries are limited to a total of 5 per person.

Send photos to mark@lifeinthefingerlakes.com or by mail to: Life in the Finger Lakes Children’s Photo Contest PO Box 1080, Geneva NY 14456

Visit LifeintheFingerLakes.com for more information ­­­­­­­­­­­­8­

Mar 21…Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo Live at the Clemens Center 7 p.m. It’s the ultimate play date! Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo Live guides your family on a breathtaking tour through pre-historic Australia. You’ll observe, meet and interact with an eye-popping collection of amazingly life-like dinosaurs and other creatures presented in a theatrical performance that will thrill and entertain kids while stimulating their imaginations in ways that will forever connect them to their world. Tickets: $52*/$30.75/ $20.75/$15 *The $52 tickets include a Meet & Greet 90 minutes prior to the performance.

207 Clemens Center Parkway Elmira, NY 14902 clemenscenter.org

Mar 24 & 31...Sip & Sparkle at Miles Wine Cellars 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Get rid of the winter blues and bring on the spring in style! Join us for wine, appetizers, a one of a kind shopping experience, fun activities and much more! This is your time to shine! Get out of the house and get ready to have a little fun!

168 Randall Crossing Road Himrod, NY 14842 mileswinecellars.com Mar 26…Pancake Supper 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Watson Homestead Conference and Retreat Center. Sponsored by: Watson Homestead Conference and Retreat Center & Corning Catering, Inc. Admission: 2 cans of food and $2.00, donated to Corning Meals on Wheels and Painted Post Food Pantry.

9620 Dry Run Road Painted Post, NY 14870 watsonhomestead.com

April Apr 1…56th Annual Naples Creek Rainbow Trout Derby Entry by Pre-Registration only. Must be registered to win. Registration Sites: Sutton Company, 120 South Main St., Naples – during business hours; Derby Headquarters, Naples Fire Hall, Vine St., 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Entry Fees: $8 Ages 16-64; $5 under 16; $5 65 and over. No cash prizes – trophies and merchandise only. naplesvalleyny.com Apr 8…The ARC Grand Prix Run at Watkins Glen International 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Run where they drive at Watkins Glen International. Choose the 3.4 mile or 1 mile course. Chip-timed; prizes for top male and female finishers; packet pick up event and after party; free race shirt with registration. Race details and registration at arcgrandprixrun.org.

2790 County Route 16 Watkins Glen, NY 14891 raceroster.com Apr 12…The Illusionists - Live From Broadway Direct from Broadway, the world’s best selling magic show is coming to the Clemens Center.

This mind blowing spectacular showcases the jawdropping talents of seven of the most incredible Illusionists on earth. “The Illusionists” has shattered box office records across the globe and dazzles audiences of all ages with a powerful mix of the (Continued on next page)

~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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most outrageous and astonishing acts ever to be seen on stage. This non-stop show is packed with thrilling and sophisticated magic of unprecedented proportions.

207 Clemens Center Parkway Elmira, NY 14901 clemenscenter.com

THIS REGION IS HOME TO FIGHTERS. This region is home to fighters like Pam. Rochester Regional Health’s breast center specialists helped her beat cancer physically and emotionally. Today, she’s

Apr 21-23…Spring Wildflower & Orchid Show 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion State Historic Park. Celebrate the arrival of spring with Sonnenberg! Stroll through gardens ladened with early spring flowers as well as orchid displays in the greenhouses. Guided tours, family activities, educational talks, and more. Price: $10/person, $5/Ages 4-16, Free for ages 3 and under.

151 Charlotte St. Canandaigua, NY 14424 585-394-4922 info@sonnenberg.org

back in the classroom — proud, confident and fearless.

Pamela Lashbrook, Brockport

Apr 21-23…Spring Wine & Cheese Weekend Recurring daily. Fri 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Sat & Sun 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This incredibly popular event combines the classic tastes of wine and cheese into one delectable weekend. It is a self-guided tour around beautiful Seneca Lake visiting 33 unique, participating wineries. Just check in and pick up your gift item at your chosen starting winery then start sampling cheese-themed dishes paired with delicious award-winning wines. Regular tickets purchased in advance are $40 per person.

877-536-2717 senecalakewine.com Apr 29-30…Arts in Bloom Sat, April 29, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sun, April 30, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Open Studio and Gallery tour, free to everyone throughout Steuben County.

Enjoy free live demonstrations of art being created while you watch; purchase that favorite piece of locally crafted art; and relax on the Art trail all weekend!

607-569-3767 Maps and information available at artinbloom.net

LIFL

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Cultured

the better things in life

Fairport’s Cozy Corner The Inn on Church brings new life to a beloved local landmark

by Randi Minetor The owners made a point of keeping original features like the tilted ceilings, porthole windows and hardwood floors.

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I

t started when two neighbors had a conversation in a driveway – a casual discussion about an old house going up for sale at the crossroads of Fairport, just a few streets over from their own homes. One year later, the neighbors have transformed a historic building into one of the area’s most inviting places to spend a night.

Pamela Renfro and Angela Herrald connected on a fundamental level from the moment they started talking about the Newman-Dean House and its seemingly limitless potential. “Pam said she’d be retiring in a couple of years and needed something creative to do,” said Herrald. “She’s committed her life to hospitality – she’s in the right place at the right time, and conversation flows because of her. And I always saw her puttering in her garage, doing things.

That speaks to me.”

“Angela brings the sense of how to make a room comfortable, warm, and inviting – and how to do it resourcefully,” said Renfro. “The challenge of using what you have forces creativity.”

Together, they knew they could turn the old house into a new center of hospitality.

The handsome Queen Anne home stands near the corner of Church and Main Streets in Fairport, just a short walk from the Erie Canal and the shops and restaurants in the village. The original owners constructed the back half of the house in the 1830s, and William Newman, a baking powder manufacturer who purchased the home in the early 1890s, had it moved back on its expansive lot. It made room for the round tower, gabled roof and neatly columned porch he would add to the front of the house. George Dean, MD, acquired the house in the 1930s and established his

~ LifeintheFingerLakes.com

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Above: The wraparound porch, round tower, scale shingles and painted trim make The Inn on Church a striking feature in the heart of Fairport, NY. Right: The house at 11 West Church Street has been restored in the spirit of its original style, as seen here in this 1908 photo.

medical practice in its front room. He saw patients there until the 1960s. “People walk in and say, ‘Dr. Dean, he delivered me!’” said Renfro.

Dean’s daughter, Barbara Dean Stewart, completed an extensive renovation in the 1990s and she sold the house in 2010. For the next five years the home was in transition, never seeming to reach its full potential. When they formed a partnership and bought the house in 2015, Renfro and Herrald knew they had considerable work ahead of them.

Luckily for them, they found the two men who had done the restoration work for Stewart. They were delighted to return to the house for a second round. Dave Carpenter (who, oddly enough, is a plumber) and Chip Clay, the carpenter, recalled where wires, pipes, and air ducts had been run decades earlier, as well as infrastructure that would be due for additional work.

“Dave said the waste line in the basement would be decaying by now,” said Herrald. “We spent a creepy weekend with our shovels and our pickaxes, digging up the basement floor.”

Sure enough, the pipes were crumbling, a fact that could have spelled disaster with a house full of guests.

“Dave and Chip really have our backs,” said Renfro.

“Their knowledge of the home is invaluable, and their craftsmanship is just excellent.”

Photos by Bonny Dunham, Lasting Images Photography, except 1908 house image, for which the photographer is unknown.

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The Inn on Church can host family events, small weddings and other gatherings in its sizable living and dining rooms.

Tables for four in the dining room permit guests to have an intimate breakfast or chat with others.

“Less doilies, more outlets”

It’s no accident that Renfro and Herrald chose to call their establishment The Inn on Church. While the inn offers a homemade, seasonal breakfast that may include baked oatmeal, frittata, granola, jams, breads and other items Renfro creates in the inn’s spacious kitchen, the owners decided to avoid the “bed and breakfast” label.

“People might think that B&Bs are full of lace, pink furniture and antiques you can’t sit on,” said Renfro. “Our plan was less doilies, more outlets, a phrase

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borrowed from NPR. We want you to come in, put your feet up, and throw your suitcase on any piece of furniture.”

Contemporary sofas and chairs, modern beds and bedding, and attractive, entirely serviceable tables and bureaus come together to create a relaxed atmosphere filled with natural light. A sprinkling of antiques live alongside unique pieces “upcycled” by Herrald, many of which she discovered in secondhand shops or rescued from the curb. A fresh coat of paint and a stencil of leaves and vines wandering across a

vertical surface turn these pieces into fun and functional works of folk art.

Each of the four guest rooms also contains a smart television, plenty of new outlets with updated wiring, and a strong WiFi signal. Every room has its own full bathroom as well; something that the proprietors felt would be key to their success. “The old-style B&B with a shared bathroom is not what the modern traveler is looking for,” said Herrald.

“But creating the space for a bathroom in each room, and actually building the bathrooms, turned out to be the most

~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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Angela Herrald (left) and Pam Renfro brought their innate senses of style and hospitality to the creation of the inn..

expensive part of the project.”

To fund this effort, they launched a Kickstarter campaign, reaching out to the local community to help them raise the $45,000 they needed. It only took a few days for them to realize that this campaign could be as big an undertaking as the renovation itself. A Fairport recording/film production studio put together a promotional video, and Renfro and Herrald developed a daily social-media calendar, connecting with potential backers on Facebook, Instagram and other sites.

The effort paid off: Support poured in until the campaign exceeded its goal, netting the inn more than $46,000.

“The Kickstarter campaign was people saying, ‘We support you,’” said Renfro.

“A good percentage of the funds came from local people, some of whom we had never met.”

Now, with the conversion completed and an online reservation system in place, The Inn on Church is ready to welcome guests.

“The demand is there,” said Herrald.

“The village of Fairport has identified a need for a guest house, a place where boaters can stay when they dock on the Erie Canal. This has the architectural uniqueness people look for, on the edge of both business and residential areas.

Millennials in particular want to move away from chain hotels to find the quaint and quirky; a local, authentic life. The timing is right.”

Randi Minetor is the author of Hiking Waterfalls in New York, Scenic Routes and Byways New York, and other books featuring upstate New York tourism. She lives in Rochester.

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Outdoors

in the open air

Return of the Lake Sturgeon

by John Adamski

T

he lake sturgeon is the largest – and the oldest – freshwater fish species swimming in New York’s upstate waters.

It dates back to the time when dinosaurs roamed the earth. This ancient bottom-feeding giant is covered with a dull gray, smooth and shark-like skin, which is as tough as leather. It is further protected by five rows of bony plates, called scutes, along each of its sides and on top of its back, giving it a definite prehistoric appearance.

According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the lake sturgeon inhabits large river and lake systems primarily in the Mississippi River, Hudson Bay and Great Lakes basins, and represents an import-

ant biological component of the Great Lakes fish community. In New York, the lake sturgeon is present in the St. Lawrence River, Niagara River, Oswegatchie River, Grasse River, Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Champlain, Black Lake, and Oneida Lake, as well as in Cayuga Lake and the Seneca-Cayuga Canal in the Finger Lakes Region. But even though it may be the largest freshwater fish species in the state’s inland waters, its conservation status is threatened.

Lake sturgeon can be considered an inshore warmwater species, making it relatively easy to catch. It prefers water temperatures that range from the low 50s to the mid-60 degrees Fahrenheit, and depths between 15 and 30

feet. Using its four catfish-like barbels to feel and locate prey along the bottom and its elongated snout to stir up sediment, the lake sturgeon feeds mostly on small invertebrates such as insect larvae, crayfish, snails, clams and leeches as well as the invasive round goby.

Because of its lack of teeth, the lake sturgeon uses its rubbery prehensile lips to pick up food and swallow it whole – using a method of filter-feeding similar to that of whales.

At one time, the once-plentiful lake sturgeon was considered a trash fish and a nuisance because of the damage that it caused to commercial fishing equipment. The trawling nets used for lake trout, Atlantic salmon, blue pike,

Dr. Dawn Dittman, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Cortland, poses with a previously-stocked lake sturgeon recovered from the Seneca River.

Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey

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The double lock in Seneca Falls would be very difficult or almost impossible for a lake sturgeon to use to move upstream. Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey

and walleyes on Lakes Ontario and Erie were no match for a thrashing 5-foot long giant weighing 100 pounds or more. Considered a troublesome “bycatch” by commercial fishermen, lake sturgeon were slaughtered by the thousands and stacked like cordwood to be burned on the beaches in a consolidated effort to get rid of them.

But by 1880, the mild lobster-like flavor of sturgeon meat was finally realized, and sturgeon eggs were becoming prized as caviar. Commercial fishing for lake sturgeon quickly evolved into a major industry and by the end of the 1800s, the Great Lakes sturgeon catch totaled more than 4 million pounds per year. These high catch rates, combined with the fish’s slow rate of reproduction and a number of environmental issues, were the beginnings of a precipitous decline in lake sturgeon population numbers.

By the early 1900s, lake sturgeon populations throughout their range had been significantly reduced and even extirpated in places because of overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution and hydroelectric dam construction that blocked upstream spawning runs.

Today, the species is listed as either threatened or endangered in 19 of the 20 states within its original range. This ancient fish, which has existed for 136 million years – since dinosaurs were at the height of their development – was beginning to look like it would soon be doomed to extinction. Would the species ever be able to sustain itself again?

Dr. Dawn Dittman is an aquatic

research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and is stationed at the Tunison Laboratory of Aquatic Science in Cortland, New York. She is the acclaimed expert on anything to do with lake sturgeon, and has been working on restoring the species since 1999. Without exception, every conservation organization that I contacted for an interview referred me to her.

Dawn also works on American eel and walleye restoration projects, and studies the ecological impacts of invasive mussels and round gobies, a small nonnative fish that sturgeon sometimes feed on. Partner organizations that work with Dawn and the USGS on lake sturgeon restoration programs include the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, located on the banks of the Genesee River near one of the project’s major sturgeon release sites.

I was surprised to learn that lake sturgeon is also native to Cayuga Lake, the only Finger Lake where they exist. Since Cayuga and Seneca Lakes are connected by the Seneca-Cayuga Canal, I asked Dawn why they haven’t migrated into Seneca Lake as well. She explained, “The Cayuga and Seneca Canal has four locks, with lifts of between 7 and 28 feet. The current canal use is almost entirely recreational with the locks opened relatively infrequently. The double lock in Seneca Falls would be very difficult or almost impossible for a lake sturgeon to use to

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Outdoors move upstream.”

As part of the ongoing restoration program, young lake sturgeon are being stocked directly into Cayuga Lake on a regular basis as well.

Restoring a lake sturgeon population to a sustainable level is a slow and tedious process because of the fish’s maturity rate. Even though males can live for more than 50 years, they don’t reach sexual maturity until they’re at least 10 years old. Females reach sexual maturity at age 14 and may live to 80 years or more. Females only spawn once in a four- to nine-year period, and males spawn once every two to seven years, making the mating cycle infrequent and interrupted as well. According to the USFWS, only 10 to 20 percent of adult lake sturgeon within a specific population spawns during any given season.

Spawning takes place between late April and June with eggs being scattered loosely in stream rapids and along rocky shores. A mature female will lay anywhere from 100,000 to 800,000 eggs at a time, depending on her age and size, but only a small percentage will survive. The fry hatch within a week and quickly grow into 6- or 8-inch fingerlings before winter sets in.

Fingerlings for the stocking programs are reared by the USFWS hatchery in Genoa, Wisconsin, and DEC’s Oneida Fish Hatchery in Constantia. Potential predators like muskellunge and northern pike are not inclined to pursue sturgeon fingerlings because of their bony armor-like protective skin.

One of Dawn’s duties is the scientific monitoring of lake sturgeon through sample netting after they’ve been stocked. Released fish are electronically tagged with an implanted radio chip that can be read with a scanner anytime an individual fish is recovered. In addition, a yellow streamer attached to each fish provides reporting information in the event that they’re caught or otherwise encountered by members of the public. This is a good place to remind fishermen that it’s illegal to intentionally target, catch, or keep any lake (Continued on page 61)

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History

narrative of the past

Mrs. Thompson’s

Conservatory

By Laurel C. Wemett

W

hen Mary Clark Thompson died in 1923 she left an impressive legacy. She was a notable philanthropist, but is perhaps best known today in the Finger Lakes and beyond for Sonnenberg Gardens, the summer home in Canandaigua that she created with her husband Frederick Ferris Thompson, a New York City banker. When Sonnenberg opens for the season in May, one of the estate’s key historic features, the Palm House, the central domed conservatory, will reopen after having undergone a major restoration.

Above: Aerial view of Palm House Conservatory showing the installation of the glass at the beginning of September 2016.

Photo courtesy of Jacob Deys of Sandman’s Sandblasting & Coatings

Top of page: Mary Clark Thompson (1835-1923) Mary Clark was born to Zilpha Watkins and Myron Holley Clark in 1835 in Naples, New York. The family moved to Canandaigua in 1837 where she attended the Ontario Female Seminary. Mary met Frederick Ferris Thompson in Albany while Myron Holley Clark was serving New York State as Governor (1855-1857). The couple was married at the Clark homestead in Canandaigua on June 17, 1857. Photo courtesy of Sonnenberg archives

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From Private Residence to State Park

The Thompsons, whose principal residence was in New York City, purchased a 300- acre farmstead in Canandaigua in 1863, calling it Sonnenberg (German for “sunny hill”). The couple replaced an original farmstead residence with a 40-room, Queen-Anne-style mansion in 1887. The Sonnenberg website states that when Mr. Thompson died in 1899, Mrs. Thompson began “re-designing, renovating, and building the diverse gardens surrounding the mansion as a living memorial to her husband.”

Her additions to the Canandaigua property included nine gardens, aviaries, and the 13,000-square-foot greenhouse complex, including the striking Palm House. It was built between 1903 and 1915 by Lord & Burnham of New York City.

In the nearly 100 years since Mrs. Thompson’s death, the Sonnenberg estate has changed hands several times. It passed first to her nephew, who sold it in 1931 to the federal government. The Veterans Administration built a hospital complex there. In 1972, the property was transferred to a not-for-profit organization whose aim was to purchase, preserve and restore a 50-acre portion of the original estate and gardens, including the mansion and greenhouse complex. It has been open to the public for more than 40 years.

In 2006, Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion became a State Historic Park owned by New York State’s Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The arrangement brought stability to the estate, which welcomed more than 35,000 visitors in 2016. However, funding for operation and maintenance does not come from the state park system. “Opening the gates, planting the gardens, opening the historic house museum, and maintaining and improving the site to secure its future” falls to the community nonprofit, explains Sonnenberg’s Executive Director David Hutchings. A small staff and a large cadre of

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seasonal volunteers generate revenue largely from memberships and donations, special events, grants, and rentals.

Restoring the Lord & Burnham Conservatory

Sonnenberg’s greenhouse complex is one of the few remaining and intact Lord & Burnham greenhouses in the United States. The company, founded in Buffalo in 1849, built major public and private conservatories. Surviving Lord & Burnham conservatories from Mrs. Thompson’s period are at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx and the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens.

“A conservatory was a way of showing great wealth,” explains David Hutchings, who serves as Sonnenberg’s lead Horticulturalist directing all design, growing and installation of the historic public gardens. The 19th century is described as the golden age of conservatory building. Industrial advances and the love of gardening produced an interest in exotic gardens under glass, across all levels of society. Affluent homeowners began adding greenhouses to their estates to provide fresh flowers and fruits.

In their 2009 Historic Structure Report on the 1903 conservatory complex, Syracuse architects and preservation planners Crawford & Stearns described the Conservatory Complex of greenhouses at Sonnenberg as “one of the most dramatic and impressive groupings of structures at the site.” Their report recommended continuous ongoing repair and maintenance.

It was last worked on 30 years ago.

The “Crown Jewel”

“We are a small not-for-profit but have really big ideas,” says Barbara Stahl, a volunteer and member of the Board of Trustees who serves as Sonnenberg’s historian and archivist. “We are constantly working on visions, plans, and how to accomplish them,” says the retired library media specialist whose research has resulted in her writing several publications about Sonnenberg’s history.

“We are being pragmatic to insure that the Palm House will last another 100 years,” says Hutchings of its restoration.

The domed structure, which measures 39 feet tall and 52 feet long is sometimes

referred to as the “crown jewel” of the greenhouse complex.

“The conservatory was one of the first things Mrs. Thompson finished,” adds Hutchings, who points out that the tropical plants growing in the Palm House include an original banana tree and Bird of Paradise plant that delight visitors today. “My dream is to see the entire greenhouse complex be returned to what it was in Mrs. Thompson’s time.”

All of the original complex still stands today except the Vegetable Pit and Violet Pit, which were both demolished in 1959. Other sections included the Chrysanthemum House, Peach and Nectarine House, Orchid House, Grapery, Mushroom Cellar, Melon Houses, Rose House, Carnation House, Propagation House and two display houses.

Stahl explains that fruits, vegetables and flowers from the Canandaigua estate were enjoyed by Mrs. Thompson when she was at her permanent residence on Madison Avenue in New York City.

“Her employees routinely sent these

items to her via the railroad. In addition, such produce was also furnished to the F.F. Thompson Memorial Hospital and the Clark Manor House, a home for the elderly. Both establishments were philanthropic gifts to Canandaigua from Mrs. Thompson.”

Renovation in 2016, under the direction of architect Paul Minor and historic preservation consultant Peter Trieb of Lima, was made possible by a matching grant received as part of the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council’s grant through the State of New York. Grants from the Rochester Area Community Foundation and the Davenport-Hatch Foundation provided much needed additional support, along with a donation from the Canandaigua Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), and numerous individual contributions. Mary Clark Thompson was a member of the DAR, a women’s service organization founded in 1890 to promote patriotism, preserve American history and support better education for our nation’s children.

The completed Lord and Burnham greenhouse with related outbuildings at Sonnenberg Gardens, circa 1915.

Courtesy Ontario County Historical Society Collection

Exterior view of Palm House Conservatory after much of the work has been completed in October 2016.

Photo courtesy of Jacob Deys of Sandman’s Sandblasting & Coatings

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Photo courtesy of Sonnenberg Gardens

Wait! There’s More!

A

second major Sonnenberg project that began last year was the adaptive reuse of Mrs. Thompson’s sole surviving aviary.

With an adjacent patio and tent, the original peacock house will become a new wedding and reception site when it’s finished early this year.

In The Aviaries at Sonnenberg, published in 2009, Barbara Stahl wrote about Mrs. Thompson’s five aviaries built between 1902 and 1923 – a flying cage attached to a building just called the aviary, a parrot house, a jay house, a pheasant house, and the peacock house.

R

ead William Templeton Hornaday’s account of his visits to Sonnenberg in 1913 and 1916. Hornaday was the director of the New York Zoological Society (Bronx Zoo) for which Mrs. Thompson was a major donor.

Hornaday’s Masterpieces in Garden-Making: The Ten Creations of Mrs. Frederick Ferris Thompson (1917) has been reprinted with helpful citations and explanations provided by a member of Sonnenberg’s archives team.

It offers descriptions for the various historic gardens and aviaries that are still enjoyed today.

Both the Hornaday and Stahl titles are available for purchase at Sonnenberg Gardens Gift Shop or at its website.

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On September 9, 2016 Sonnenberg Executive Director Dave Hutchings (standing in center at the historic Palm House entrance) accepted a donation of $10,000 awarded by a Special Projects Grant from NSDAR (National Society Daughters of American Revolution) for the on-going restoration of the Palm House. Kneeling – left: Richard Deys, right: Jacob Deys who carried out the work. First row standing left-right: Cynthia Schwab, David Hutchings, Glena Larson, (Regent of the Canandaigua chapter of the DAR), Jackie Lowe, Barb Stahl (Sonnenberg Gardens historian), Jeanne Roy. Second row, standing left-right: Betsy Dresser, Joan Ripley, Cindy Barben, Kathy French, Ellen Hallahan Photo courtesy of National Society Daughters of American Revolution

Stepping Up to the Challenge

After the job went to bid, it was awarded to local contractor Sandman’s Sandblasting and Coatings. Based in nearby Manchester, the business is owned by Richard Deys, who employs 15 full-time workers, all of whom are OSHA and lead-paint certified, as well as certified for preservation work. Sandman’s had previously helped Sonnenberg Gardens to get small historical pieces like swings and benches “back in shape.”

Restoration work on the Palm House began in June 2016 and the business donated $100,000 worth of labor to the project.

“Sandman’s main work is with municipalities – sandblasting highway trucks, repainting them, and welding,” explains Richard Deys, who graduated high school as a nuclear-certified welder.

Sandman’s projects are varied and sometimes very large, reflecting Deys’ love of a challenge. Their preservation work is carried out on everything from navy ships to major military aircraft, as seen at sandmans.net. Many of the locomotives for the Finger Lakes Railroad are painted

by Sandman’s.

In 2017 they will carry out work on steam engines at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, Lancaster County. They even painted metal sculp-

tures created by renowned sculptor Albert Paley, including many of the thirteen installed for exhibition on Park Avenue in New York City in 2013.

1,200 Pieces of Glass

Deys’ son Jacob, a June 2016 graduate of Gananda High school, served as head foreman for this job. “Jacob took out over 1,200 pieces of glass in the dome; then everything was labeled to put back in the same spot,” said Richard.

Each piece of glass was cleaned and painted, and since each is different and has to be squared up to the structure one piece at a time, all the work was done onsite. “Jacob takes it extremely seriously,” says his father. “He’s been in my coat pocket and knows the trade.

This work takes a certain type of person.”

Early greenhouses such as Sonnenberg’s were made of cypress wood and iron or steel. Many wooden sashes, sills and doors were either replaced or restored. Structural ribs, purlins, and posts (the infrastructure of the dome) required minor repairs. Hand-hewn wooden ribs made out of cedar wood were replicated as needed.

After the glass panes were painstakingly returned to their original locations, a UV resistant paint was applied to the inside of the panes to further reduce the

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History Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion State Historic Park 151 Charlotte Street Canandaigua, NY 14424 sonnenberg.org.

585-394-4922 Public Hours: open 7 days a week, rain or shine, May 1 through October 31.

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Extended Summer Hours: (Memorial Day – Labor Day) 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

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ultraviolet rays of the sun. This coating helps to control the environment, regulating the extremes of temperatures. By November 2016, 80 percent of the work had been completed with only minor repairs and cleanup remaining.

“Most greenhouses didn’t last 100 years; they are long gone,” says Deys.

“Our big job is to bring the conservatory complex back.”

The challenge is to make it as close to the original as possible. Over the years, the greenhouse has been repaired and changed. Sandman’s was guided by copies of the Lord & Burnham blueprints and a few available photographs. “With the tools we have today it is simple for us to repair; they had to start from scratch,” said Deys.

“The public should know about the conservatory and Palm House,” he adds.

“The best thing to do is to visit Sonnenberg and see it with your own eyes.”

As funds for continued restoration are received, more of the greenhouses can be opened again and returned to their original utilitarian uses. Donations to the greenhouse complex can be made online or directed to the Greenhouse Fund c/o Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion. Contact David Hutchings at director@sonnenberg.org with any questions.

770 South Main Street Canandaigua, NY 14424 www.theinnonthelake.com - 585.394.7800

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Finger Lakes Funny

stories to make you laugh

What’s in a

name?

story and photos by Rich Finzer

I

n my travels around Central New York, I’ve been both puzzled and amused by many of the street names and street sign configurations I’ve seen. Some are absolutely comical, while others seem strangely out of place or slightly mysterious in derivation. Chew on some of these facts.

In the villages of Cato, Baldwinsville, Jordan and Camillus, to name but four, there is a Mechanic Street. A properly worded query in Google yields references to numerous Mechanic Street(s) in the 14-county Finger Lakes Region. In the tiny Village of Cato, there are only two side streets, and one is named – you guessed it, Mechanic Street. So at some point in the past, mechanics must have been very popular to merit this form of recognition.

In Lysander there’s a street named Phosphate Alley. Near the southern end of Weedsport, there is a Rude Street. Your guess is as good as mine on this one.

But of all the potential street names available, this is the best Weedsport could come up with?

There is a Rochester Street in Hannibal, but no Hannibal Street in Rochester. There is an Oneida Street in Baldwinsville, but no Baldwinsville Street in Oneida.

There’s a DeWitt Street in Syracuse, but no Syracuse Street in DeWitt. There’s a Buffalo Street in Ithaca, but there’s no Ithaca Street in Buffalo. There’s a Cleveland Street in Liverpool, but no Liverpool Street in the tiny Village of Cleveland in Oswego County – or in the big city in Ohio. As dual routes 5 & 20 pass through Seneca Falls, the road is named Cayuga Street, but there is no Seneca Falls Street in the Village of Cayuga.

I live on White Cemetery Road in the Town of Ira and the

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cemetery borders my farm. But don’t get the wrong idea. The street name has absolutely nothing to do with race; rather, it’s named for the man who donated the land for the cemetery.

And as far as burials, we make no distinction about race. Our sole demand is that the person must be dead first – which is reasonable. Strictly as an aside, there seems to be considerable confusion when it comes to spelling the word cemetery. As an example, I’ve received reader mail where it was spelled “Semitary.”

In North Syracuse there is a Sandy Lane (rumored to be Lois Lane’s sister), a Sandra Lane and a Sandra Drive. All three are located within about 4 miles of each other. In the early ‘80s, I lived on Sandy Lane.

Everything was fine for 11 months of the year, but come Christmas time, temporary mail carriers brought many “extra” holiday cards to my house.

And I can only speculate about where some of my mail may have ended up.

Syracuse, however, takes the cake for unusual street names and configurations. In the Rose Hill section of town, you’ll find both Highland Street and Highland Avenue. They meet at the corner of Highland and Highland. Less than one mile away, is the tony enclave of Sedgwick. And about halfway through this upscale neighborhood is the corner of Sedgwick Drive and Sedgwick Road. To complete this hat trick of redundancy, one must venture near Syracuse University. There you will find the corner of Comstock Place and Comstock Avenue. To me, these street corners speak volumes about the creativity of the street namers in the Salt City. Imagine explaining to some slightly intoxicated first time visitor that

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you’ll meet him at the corner of Highland and Highland. I’d buy a ticket to see that!

To an extent, Rochester has much the same problem. Depending upon your location, the same stretch of pavement is called Exchange Street, State Street or Lake Avenue. For the record, there are no chestnut trees growing on Chestnut Street. Circle Street does NOT run in a circle and Canal Street is nowhere near the Barge Canal! But again, Syracuse trumps even these road naming anomalies with West Street – which runs north and south (sigh).

One Place “Gets It”

The Syracuse suburb of Solvay has at least one pair of street names that make total sense. Solvay marks the eastern terminus of the Finger Lakes Railway. It is home to both Lionel Avenue and Boxcar Lane. Boxcar Lane crosses the FGLK tracks and Lionel Avenue is located within a stone’s throw of the rails. Corny names, perhaps – though either beats the living daylights out of Highland and Highland!

But, I’d rather focus on a more positive note, so I’ll mention a few of the snazzy street names from my old hometown, Rochester. The Flower City boasts streets with classy names like Argyle Street, Vick Park A, Vick Park B, Radio Street, Rocket Street, Trafalgar Street and my personal favorite, Richard Street. Let’s focus just a bit more scrutiny on the “Vicks.”

During the 1830s, aspiring teenaged printer, seedsman and nurseryman James Vick moved to Rochester along with his parents. The family purchased a large tract of land in the “Park Central” district and began raising both fruit trees and crops for garden seeds. Later the family built a racetrack on their land that stretched between Park Avenue and East Avenue. James Vick’s seed company is long gone, as is the racetrack. But Vick Park A and Vick Park B mark the straight-away stretches of that nearly forgotten equestrian venue.

So while some streets have names bordering upon the ridiculous, others have deep historical significance or specific meanings. It’s up to you to decide which label fits best. As for me, I believe everything will eventually work out fine once we replant the millions of majestic elms that once lined the Elm Streets gracing the byways of our local cities, villages and towns.

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To view articles on the history of street names in Rochester, visit cityofrochester. gov. For more information about the life and times of James Vick, visit saveseeds.org.

Rich Finzer resides in Cayuga County. During his 46 years as a writer, he has published over 1,200 newspaper, magazine and Internet articles. His award-winning book Maple on Tap is available through his publisher, Acres USA. His e-novels Taking the Tracks, Dawn Toward Daylight and Julie & Me are available through Amazon Kindle.

The Mystery Intersection

Roughly 20 years ago, I rescued a street sign as it was being discarded at our town dump. It marks the corners of Park Street and Elm Street and has evoked something of a mystery. Several intensive Google searches have failed to locate any place where streets with these names meet/cross.

So here’s the deal. If you reside in the village, hamlet, town or city where this sign came from; or if you lived there in a past life and you’d like the sign as a memento, e-mail Life in the Finger Lakes editor Mark Stash (mark@lifeinthefingerlakes.com) with your contact information. I’ll gift you the sign; provided you pay the shipping (it weighs about 15 pounds). I have no use for it, though I’d hate to see it end up at the local scrap yard.

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Vulture:

Villian or Virtuoso

Waiting for thermals to form, vultures begin the day with a warm and cleansing sunbath.

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story and photos by Derek Doeffinger

D

id you snap awake this morning, as I did, and suddenly realize the answer to the question, “What do I have in common with Stan Lee of Marvel Comic Book fame and Franz Kafka of college literature fame?” If so, you’ve come to the right article.

Like many of us, those two 20th-century literary giants were smitten with vultures. In the 1960s, Lee concocted the second criminal nemesis of Spider-Man and named him the Vulture (he will be resurrected in this summer’s Spider-Man movie); decades earlier Franz Kafka used a short story to demonize a vulture that torments and ultimately kills a man trying to escape yet another Kafkian web.

But they both got it wrong. Vultures aren’t villains. In reality, vultures are amazing animals, perhaps the most amazing creature in the Finger Lakes Region. What makes them amazing are the incredible adaptations they’ve developed to take on a very specialized and critical niche of the ecosystem: the consumption of corpses. In short, they’re scavengers; eaters of carrion, roadkill dumpster divers.

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More vulture facts u The range of turkey vultures extends from South America to southern Canada. In the Finger Lakes, birds tend to migrate southward in late fall and return late-March. (McGowan notes that recently some are staying into, and possibly through, the winter.) u Turkey vultures mate for life. They don’t build nests, but simply lay two eggs in a depression in a protected area on the ground or a cliff. Both parents incubate the eggs and feed the young. They may also communicate food locations while roosting. u An adult weighs about 4 pounds and lives up to 10 years in the wild. u The word “vulture” derives from the Latin word “villere,” meaning “to tear.”

The enigmatic face of a vulture results from its unusual design for feeding on carrion (this is Barf at wildwingsinc.com).

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~ LifeintheFingerLakes.com

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Vulture: Villian or Virtuoso Tools of the trade

It’s not easy being an elite scavenger. One needs very specific tools – tools that have been refined over the eons.

Let’s start out with a tool that can, from a human perspective, inflict great humiliation. At one time or another, we’ve all been humiliated at the, um … hands of a bird. Dive-bombed by a nesting jay? Yep. Pursued by a hungry gull? More like a flock.

Plopped by a pigeon? Don’t remind me.

But that’s nothing, according to Dr. Kevin McKowan of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and co-author of the recently released book “The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds of New York.” When it comes to suffering bird-inflicted indignities, he gives the nod to the turkey vulture because “being puked on by a turkey vulture is a memorable experience.”

Why would a vulture vomit on you? McGowan explains that it’s a defensive mechanism deployed when a vulture feels threatened. Like a skunk’s spray, it repels enemies. But it’s not just the stench. Filled with powerful stomach acids, it’s also corrosive. The adaptation of strong stomach acids enables vultures to render harmless the deadly effects of salmonella bacteria and botulism toxins common in corpses, turning otherwise vile and revolting meals into vulture vittles.

But vultures have their limits. Corpses over a few days old don’t tempt them. Vultures would probably prefer fresh roadside kill but they can’t easily detect the recently deceased.

Their detection system depends on another amazing adaptation – a superb sense of smell, which is quite unusual in most birds. Within a day of dying, the odor emitted by decaying animals can be detected by vultures over a mile away. Not all types of vultures excel in scent detection – many, such as the more southerly black vulture, simply follow turkey vultures and cut to the front of the dinner line.

Taking flight

To find and follow that scent and the meal it promises, turkey vultures rely on their most beautiful adaptation – giant wings that spread 6 feet across. Before they begin their day of corpse hunting, they prep for flight – typically an hour or so after the sun rises.

Morning begins in a tree roost hosting a dozen to several dozen vultures. When the direct rays of the sun reach them, they turn their backs. Looking like supplicant monks, they lift and extend their wings as if exalting in the glorious sun. But they aren’t.

They’re simply drying and warming up their wings, and using the sun’s ultraviolet radiation to kill bacteria on them.

As they warm up, so does the ground and air, creating thermals – invisible geysers of air streaming high into the sky. The vultures flap clumsily into these solar-powered elevators. As they’re lifted toward the sky they’re transformed

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from earthbound klutzes into the most efficient and graceful soarers you may ever see – hardly flapping a wing until they descend for lunch. Unlike the iconic circling vultures of cowboy westerns, turkey vultures are solo searchers. The thermals may carry them aloft as a group, but they soon separate and go their own ways to search for food.

From high above, a vulture monitors the air until it detects the odor of death, or spots another turkey vulture that has found food. (Their good eyesight complements their sense of smell.) Clumsy on the ground, a vulture walks to the dead animal and begins feasting – in a hierarchical order if a group is present. Lacking the tools to dispatch healthy prey, a vulture almost never kills animals, though it may hasten the demise of the nearly dead. Sometimes they will eat bugs, small rodents, and fish. (They have been reported to eat heron chicks.) A visit to a garbage dump is not out of the question.

Vultures tend to prefer the corpses of small- to medium-sized animals, such as rabbits, groundhogs, possums, coons and squirrels. Because they’re not strong enough to fly off with their finds, they can quickly eat small animals

~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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Vulture: Villian or Virtuoso

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Wohlschlegel ’s Top: The vulture above stood its ground as it was photographed.

Bottom: This bird retreated from its roadkill meal of possum for the safety of a limb.

before a more powerful predator, like a coyote, bullies them off their find.

Their unique heads enable eating carrion. Take a look at the head of a turkey vulture. You can’t help but stare at it.

You don’t know whether to laugh or cringe. At first glance, it looks like a rusted farrier’s hammer, or perhaps an ancient crone peeking out from a giant feather boa. Instead, it’s simply a balding head wrapped in loose puckered skin sloping into a sculpted hooked beak of Durantic proportions.

It’s not only a work of art; it’s a work of design perfection.

It can probe into and dismember carrion, and remain somewhat sanitary.

Here’s one last odd behavior that kids will find irresistible.

On hot summer days, turkey vultures poop on their bare legs.

Why? To cool down.

Awkward and agile, ugly and beautiful, savage and serene, simple and sophisticated, threatening and enthralling – the turkey vulture has intimidated many, intrigued some, and inspired a few, including Groucho Marx, who said, “I eat like a vulture. Unfortunately the resemblance doesn’t end there.”

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Sandy waits patiently for training class to begin

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~ LifeintheFingerLakes.com

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Raise a

Puppy,

Change a

Michele uses a wooden ring to teach Triscuit “getting dressed.”

Life!

Story and photos by Cindy Ruggieri

I

met Klinger a few years ago while visiting the Granger Homestead in Canandaigua. I almost didn’t notice him, sitting so quietly. “What a great dog,” I exclaimed to his owner, “I think I could even pet him!” (That’s high praise from me – someone who is not necessarily comfortable around dogs.)

“This is part of Klinger’s training,” his owner Bonnie Kelly told me. “I’m a puppy raiser for Guiding Eyes.” My interest piqued, I started asking questions as she explained.

The Finger Lakes Region is home to dozens of volunteer puppy raisers, working under the guidance of Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Yorktown Heights, New York. The organization has provided guide dogs for the visually impaired since 1954, and is an accredited member of the Raiser Elaine works with Sandy on International Guide Dog leash walking and backup skills.

Federation, which establishes worldwide standards for the breeding and training of guide dogs. Volunteer puppy raisers are the first step in this process – they provide the necessary foundation of early training and love that allows a puppy to grow to become an M ar ch /A pr i l 2017 ~

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Puppies pay close attention to raisers during training class.

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Raise a Puppy, Change a Life!

adult guide dog.

I recently chatted with Bonnie to catch up on the news about her puppies. Since we met, Klinger has become well known – he’s the first guide dog in the United States also trained to run marathons with his visually-impaired owner.

Bonnie is now training Luna, Klinger’s daughter. “I started in 2005, and planned to raise just one puppy,” she said, with a smile in her voice. “So far I’ve raised 12.”

The puppy-training process

Guiding Eyes has an excellent breeding program, looking for very specific characteristics and temperaments that make the puppies ideal candidates to become guide dogs. At 8 weeks old, Guiding Eyes matches the puppy with a puppy raiser. Raisers can have any level of training and skill, from very experienced to first-timers, and can be any age, from student to senior citizen. Those interested in becoming a puppy raiser may first want to attend one of the training classes to observe the process.

I attended a training session with the Monroe County puppy raisers, taught by Pam Boy, Monroe County region coordinator, to see the puppies in action. They are typical puppies as they enter the room: wiggly, happy and interested in the other dogs. But the raisers quickly settle the dogs and the serious business of training begins. Both verbal commands and hand commands may be used. There is a focus on basic house manners, obedience and socialization.

It is very important to introduce the dogs to all social situations with people, traffic, crowds, indoors, outdoors – anything a visually-impaired person may encounter. Much of the training focuses on actions that are not obvious to a sighted person. The simple act of walking a dog – always on the left for a visually-impaired person – must be practiced until the dog avoids any distraction that may pull them away from the owner. A visually-impaired person is not able to make eye contact as sighted owners do naturally, so the dog must be trained to respond without eye contact. There is plenty of touching and massaging the dogs, as a visually-impaired person can only connect with the dog through touch and the dog must be comfortable with this.

Dog treats are used liberally for a job well done, but must eventually be phased out as responses become natural.

Testing is done at certain phases of the training and must be completed successfully without the use of treats. Graduations to the next phase are cause for celebration.

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Puppy-raiser requirements

Potential puppy raisers must attend pre-placement classes to understand what is involved in raising a puppy for Guiding Eyes, and to prepare for their puppy. They are then required to attend regularly scheduled classes with the puppy, generally once per week, for six months. Once puppies graduate from foundation training, regular sessions drop to twice per month until the puppy is ready to return to Guiding Eyes for formal guide dog training.

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Raise a Puppy, Change a Life!

A network of puppy sitters is available in case a puppy raiser has to leave the dog for a short period of time, such as a vacation. The sitters are also trained puppy raisers, so they’re experienced in using the same techniques and commands, allowing for uninterrupted training.

I asked Michele, one of the experienced trainers at the session I attended, if it’s difficult to return the dog to Guiding Eyes after 18 months of training (and loving) the puppy. “It’s hard,” she admitted. “I have to think of it as if my child has graduated and is going off to college.

Fender is a very attentive student.

Michele gives plenty of praise to Triscuit for a job well done.

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~ LifeintheFingerLakes.com

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If I didn’t look at it that way, I don’t think I could do it.”

Not every puppy makes it as a guide dog, but each remains a significant part of the guide dog program. For example, some may be placed in the breeding program. Others can end up in a different role, as I learned during my training class, when the group applauded upon learning one of their puppies was now an explosive detection canine in Tampa, Florida.

Occasionally, a puppy may be released from the program. At that point, the puppy raiser has the first option to adopt the dog, as happened to Michele. “They called me and asked if I wanted to adopt the puppy I had trained. I never hesitated – it was an immediate yes!”

Raisers in our region

Guiding Eyes organizes its puppy raisers by region along the East Coast, with a region coordinator as the first point of contact for potential puppy raisers. Local region chapters are established in Monroe, Cattaraugus and Wayne counties, the Finger Lakes and the Southern Tier. Classes are held at various public locations that allow the group to meet with the dogs, such as churches. The same training techniques are used in all regions, maintaining consistency for puppy raisers across the organization.

The Southern Tier chapter has a close affiliation with Cornell University, with college students involved as puppy raisers. The newest local region is in Wayne County and was added about a year ago. “Before we established this region, raisers had to travel an unreasonable distance to get to the weekly classes,” explained Cindy Swift, Wayne County region coordinator. “Having an additional region has made it easier for the raisers to attend the classes.”

It can be difficult work, she acknowledges, “but it is also very exciting to know you’ve done all you can to make the dog a successful guide dog, which can change someone’s life.”

This volunteer force of puppy raisers is dedicated and loving, devoting over a year to raising a dog that will make a difference in the life of a visually-impaired person. The Guiding Eyes slogan, “Raise a puppy, change a life,” is a perfect phrase for what they do.

Visit guidingeyes.org to locate regions and region coordinators.

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The

Art of the

Four Seasons

Garden Story by K.C. Fahy-Harvick Photos by Peter Blackwood

Winter Above: Statuary holds up the snow as it creates winter focal points for the garden.

Right: A winding walkway accentuates the depth of this garden, and compels the viewer to pass by the Black Locust tree to the next area of the garden.

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~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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T

here are many challenges for the Finger Lakes gardener – keeping color in the garden all summer; extending interest through the fall; battling insects, diseases,

predators, weather. But I believe the biggest challenge is our long winter season, when cold and snow can render the home landscape leafless and barren. Personally, I love the snow-covered hills and frozen waterfalls, but the dormant home landscapes can be severe and uninviting.

Fall

Summer Above: Sculpted Juniper (Cloud Pruned) on the left and Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum viridis) frame the walkway view from the patio.

Right: Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum atropurpureum), known for its spring and fall features, shown here in its fall glory.

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Spring

The frog sculpture adds character when this garden is dormant. Hinoki Cypress (left) “Pygmaea” adds a green backdrop.

Below: Hostas (L-R) “Gypsy Rose Lee” and “Corona” frame the frog for the summer.

The shape of this sculpted evergreen frames the statue.

T

he extraordinary garden of Gerald Kral is one of the most coveted in our area. My friend Jerry has worked for decades on his gardens, and collected plants from all over the world in order to create these spectacular spaces that are now becoming one with his home. He is perhaps most famous for his collection of dwarf conifers, but as you can see, his Japanese Maples are also quite stunning.

Jerry’s use of garden art reflects his unique sense of

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~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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Garden creator Gerald Kral

whimsy, and shows precisely how art in the garden can create emphasis, and slow the pace of the garden viewer.

It is difficult to choose a favorite spot in his garden, as even Jerry is hard-pressed to narrow it down to a few areas. I have chosen pictures that I hope prove useful to the average gardener, as they illustrate how the fundamental principles of gardening for all seasons can be put to use in any outdoor living area.

K.C. Fahy-Harick, a landscape designer, is a sought after lecturer. Her workshops reflect her love of perennials, bird gardening and water features. More about Fahy-Harvick can be found at gardeningmatters. com or by email at kcfh60@gmail.com.

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Summer Below, right: Containers that are frost proof add structural interest all year, while weeping Norway Spruces (Picea abies pendula) frame the space.

Below, left: Perennial grass (Hakonechloa) surrounds mushrooms. Chairs add color and a resting place to stop and enjoy the garden. The topiary is a Norway Spruce on a standard.

The dark foliage of the weeping Beech tree (Fagus nana purpurea pendula) accents surrounding features.

Bottom: The red bench adds color throughout the year. The plants in the foregrond add textural interest. (L-R): Oriental Juniper “Franky Boy,” Hinoki Cypress “Amber Glow,” Pinus bungeana “Rowe Arboretum,” Chamaecyparis pisifera “Blue Dwarf,” Taxus baccata “Icicle,” (foreground) Creeping Thyme “Elfin,” Fescue “Elijah Blue.”

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Fall

The bare bones of the tree transform it into a living sculpture for fall and winter.

The awesome orange of the sugar maple provides an exclamation point in the landscape (Acer saccharum “Monumentale”).

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The maple tree combines with Arborvitae “Emerald Green” for great contrast.

~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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T

his beautiful garden (though not one of my designs) illustrates the principles of design I use the most when developing a home landscape plan. These fundamentals address the challenges of creating beauty and character for all four seasons, and will help gardeners of all skill levels work magic in their own home landscapes.

1) Know the complete life cycle of every tree, shrub and perennial. This includes winter features like the bark of trees, shape of shrubs, and the evergreen foliage of perennials that can actually add beauty during the long hibernation of your garden landscapes. Also, early spring can reveal unique characteristics of plants and trees that will add interest as the garden awakens.

2) Structures in the garden, like walls, walks, patios, pergolas and furniture, can create the artistic foundation of the landscape that carries through all four seasons. Consider these structural features to be like the “little black dress” is to your wardrobe, as they form the shape and character of the garden. Statuary and containers can be used like you accessorize your outfit. They direct the eye, emphasize your home’s architecture, and reflect your personality in your outdoor space.

Hydrangea paniculata “Lime Glow.”

Summer seating and containers become winter sculptures.

Winter Tiger eye Sumac branch frames entry.

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TOP TEN FINGER LAKES TROUT STREAMS Excerpted from Trout Streams of Central New York

by J. Michael Kelly.

N

ew York can justly lay claim to having some of the world’s best trout streams flowing within its borders, and at least a couple of those fishing holes are located in the Finger Lakes Region. Would you believe that the trout fishing around here is so good that the majority of anglers who frequent them no longer feel the need to exaggerate their catches?

Me, neither. There’s something compulsive about catching a big one and then fudging on the facts afterward.

Yet the fishing (and catching) in these parts is worldclass by any standards, especially during the first month or two of New York’s annual trout season. That’s when rainbow trout as thick as fire hydrants fill certain Finger Lakes tributaries on the way to their spawning grounds, and wild brown and brook trout start sipping mayflies from stream surfaces.

Over the years, skilled anglers develop a sense of when the trout will bite, and where. Just for fun, they might even make lists of the better streams in the Finger Lakes region. My contribution, “The Finger Lakes Top Ten Trout Streams,” begins with a heavily fished creek that’s within a 15-minute drive from downtown Syracuse.

1. Nine Mile Creek, my chart-topper, is the outlet of Otisco Lake, the easternmost body of water in the Finger Lakes chain. Stocked with more than 20,000 trout a year, it fishes best between Marcellus Falls and Camillus, in southern Onondaga County. Most of the trout caught here are brown trout, including many wild ones that run between 12 and 16 inches, plus a few genuine monsters that should be weighed instead of measured. Nine Mile also holds some impressive tiger muskellunge. These 20-pound brutes swim over the Otisco dam and keep going downstream until something much bigger than they are yells “stop.”

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2. Close to Nine Mile in terms of its overall fishing quality is Chittenango Creek, which journeys northward through Madison and Onondaga counties before spilling into Oneida Lake near Bridgeport. It is fished hard by anglers north and south of U.S. Route 20, but I love the pocket water along Route 13, downstream of Chittenango Falls State Park. It is stuffed with wild and stocked brown trout and provides dry fly anglers with countless chances to take them on the top.

3. Having arrived at stream number three, I feel obliged to whisper to one all that they must try Factory Brook, but with a great deal of caution. I say that because the The author with a stream flowing under Route 41 in the 19-inch rainbow Cortland County village of Homer trout caught in has been hurting lately due Catharine Creek. mainly to drought. Yet I have caught a couple of 20-inch brown trout in the last couple of years, and plenty of brook trout, too. All of the trout that swim in this 15-foot-wide stream are wild. They go crazy in late May when the sulfurcolored mayflies are hatching.

4. Owasco Inlet, the deep, rural creek that flows north from Groton through Locke and Moravia in Tompkins and Cayuga counties has a fairly heavy run of rainbows from Owasco Lake in April, followed by some great fishing for brown trout the rest of the season.

The Inlet has approximately 14 miles of public fishing rights along its banks.

5. Catharine Creek is number five on my trout top hit list, and famous around the world for its spring rainbow run. Rainbows weighing up to 10 or 12 pounds run all the way to the creek’s headwaters near Pine Valley in Chemung County, and these trout hit worms, minnows, salmon eggs and artificial nymphs.

~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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Grinnel Road culvert pool, Cortland County

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TOP TEN FINGER LAKES TRO

Trout Streams of Central New York J. Michael Kelly Burford Books burfordbooks.com ©2015

Angler behavior used to be a turn-off on “Queen Catharine,” but the observance of stream etiquette has been much improved in recent seasons. The creek flows into Seneca Lake in Watkins Glen and is closely paralleled by Route 14 for most of its length.

6. Sort of a condensed version of Catharine Creek, Naples Creek makes this list by virtue of its all-around excellence. Rainbow runs have been increasing in recent years due to tighter

waterfalls, it would be a winner-take-all affair, because Ithaca Falls is in a class by itself, among shutterbugs. The falls is near the downstream end of Fall Creek, which happens to be within easy walking distance of Ithaca High School and Cornell University. Best of all, the giant pool at the base of the falls is loaded with trout in the spring – mostly rainbows and a few bonus browns. Tenpounders are rare, yet not implausible.

The falls pool is perfectly suited for casting streamer flies with 9-foot fly rods

J. Michael Kelly

was a writer for 36 years at The Syracuse Newspapers, including the last 16 as the outdoors columnist for the Syracuse Post-Standard. Kelly has contributed thousands of articles to outdoors publications and won numerous first-place awards from the New York State Outdoor Writers Association. His earlier title, Fishing the Finger Lakes, was reviewed in the magazine’s Summer 2014 Book Look.

In this guide Kelly combines his lifelong trout fishing experiences with an engaging writing style. A resident of Marcellus, the author presents in-depth information on what he refers to as the “forgotten” trout waters found in 18 of New York’s central counties. These waters offer trout anglers comparable fishing experiences to those available at the more widely known creeks and streams of the Catskills or the Adirondacks regions of New York. In Part One of this book the “underappreciated” trout fishing locales of the Central New York region is divided into three geographical groupings: “South of the Flower City,” or the Rochester area; “Trout in the Heartland” which focuses on the Syracuse area streams; and “Trout Waters of the Southern Tier” covering counties close to the Pennsylvania border. In total, 100 trout streams and rivers are presented with starred ratings, noteworthy information specific to each locale, along with the best time to fish there.

Part Two of this handy and detailed resource offers helpful suggestions to a trout fisherman wherever he casts his line. The reader will learn more about fly selection, hatch-making, lures and techniques for spin-fishing and bait-fishing, among other topics. One chapter, Trout-Fishing Manners and Ethics, deals with “commonsense” trout-fishing etiquette and acceptable behavior for the trout angler.

The book is indexed and well-illustrated with maps, as well as black and white photographs of many specific locations, and two full-color pages of effective flies for Central New York trout streams.

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A brown trout caught (and released) in Grout Brook.

fishing regulations, and anglers who used to keep everything they caught now are more inclined to catch and release. Some guys even say good-by to the whoppers, which in this creek can weigh between 8 and 9 pounds. Surprisingly, Naples Creek isn’t nearly as crowded as Catharine, these days. Located in the village of Naples at the south end of Canandaigua Lake, this 10- to 30-feet-wide stream is worthy of more attention than it gets from trout fishers.

7. If this article ranked fishy-looking

and weight-forward lines.

8. Skaneateles Creek is the outlet of Skaneateles Lake, and, due to some unusual circumstances, is definitely under-fished throughout the season.

After making a quick run under U.S. Route 20 in the picturesque village of Skaneateles, the stream proceeds north through the hamlet of Mottville and then makes numerous bends through Elbridge and Jordan before emptying into the Seneca River. Since the 1990s, the creek has been contaminated by

~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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PCBs, which are used most notably for insulating electrical power transformers. Although the contaminants are found in soils adjacent to Skaneateles Creek, conservationist-anglers and key DEC officials determined eating the fish was not a healthy practice, and a 10.2-mile stretch of between Old Seneca Turnpike and the Bennett Bolt factory in Jordan was declared a catchand-release fishing area in which anglers are permitted to use artificial flies and spinning lures, but no live bait. The creek’s finest fishing is in this stretch, where all caught fish must be set free immediately after they are landed. The creek’s best fishing comes in early May, when Hendrickson mayflies are hatching.

Wild browns of 12-15 inches and slightly smaller wild and stocked rainbows are fun to play with when the aquatic insects are cavorting on the surface.

9. Number nine on my Finger Lakes trout stream rankings, Grout Brook is one of the better rainbow spawning grounds in the region, and also holds surprising numbers of wild brown trout, including a few between 18 and 22 inches long. Only 10- to 15-feet wide, this brook doesn’t look like an April-through December hotspot, but is exactly that. It is located at the south end of Skaneateles Lake, and it runs through the tiny hamlet of Scott before making a sharp turn and heading due north along lower Glenhaven Road. Check the special regulations pertaining to Finger Lakes tributaries before you get into fish, since the brook is actively patrolled by regional state conservation officers.

10. Last to list but arguably as good or better than several other creeks that squeeze it out of contention is Mill Creek, a marvelous brown trout stream which is southwest of Naples in Steuben and Livingston counties. You can find it easily by taking Route 21 south from Naples. After driving through Wayland you will notice the Gunlocke furniture factory on your left. Take your next right, just before the entrance ramp onto the Genesee Parkway (Route 390). Fishing is good for 8- to 12-inch browns with beautifully colored flanks, from the unofficial access where the creek slips under Michigan Road to the gorge which takes Mill Creek through the tiny communities of Patchinville and Perkinsville. Be forewarned that this is clear, mostly flat water populated by 100-percent-wild browns. You can catch them readily after a heavy rain, using live bait or weighed artificial nymphs, but there will be many other occasions when these super-wary trout say “no” to everything you offer.

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History

narrative of the past

Walking

with History Story and photo

by Rachel Dickinson

2016 2017 SEASON Central New York’s Off-Broadway Theater HAND TO GOD

by Robert Askins / Sep 4 - 25

PRECIOUS NONSENSE

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DEATH BOOGIE

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BIRDS OF EAST AFRICA

by Wendy Dann / Jan 29 - Feb 12

SEX WITH STRANGERS

by Laura Eason / Mar 12 - Apr 2

THROW PITCHFORK

by Alexander Thomas / Apr 23 - May 7

CLEAN ALTERNATIVES

by Brian Dykstra / Jun 4 - Jun 18

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O

n January 21, 2017, I gave up my ticket on the bus to Washington, D.C., where I’d planned to participate in the Women’s March. Not because I didn’t want to go.

I gave up my seat because I knew I had to go to the sister march in Seneca Falls, the little village in the Finger Lakes where the American women’s rights movement began. I had to march with the ghosts of the women and men who would be viewing the day’s actions with a mixture of pride and dismay.

I was no stranger to Seneca Falls – it’s only an hour’s drive from where I live in Central New York. I took my daughter there once to hear Betty Friedan speak at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. It made such an impression on her that when her high school English teacher asked each student for an example of a hero, my daughter wrote “Betty Friedan” on the board, in a sea of superheroes. I listened to Hilary Rodham Clinton speak there when she was running for the U.S. Senate. I’ve been through the

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exhibits and have read through the binders of the members of the National Women’s Hall of Fame. I was already in touch with my historical feminist roots.

Still, I wasn’t prepared for the jolt I felt on the 21st as I sat on a hillside next to the Wesleyan Chapel. I was listening to speakers invoke the sacredness of this spot – this very spot! – where women (and some men) gathered 169 years ago to ratify the Declaration of Sentiments. The then-radical document dared to suggest that all people are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights. “We are here to get a sense, collectively, of how much women have done over the years,” Betty Bayer, one of the march organizers, told me. It was a celebration, a teaching moment, and a call to action.

When I rolled into town early on Saturday morning, the streetlights on the main street had just switched off. I wandered the empty village sidewalks searching for coffee. The day was bright and blue-skied and promised to hit 50 degrees by afternoon – surely a gift. I stood on the bridge and looked down at the Cayuga-Seneca Canal dividing the village in two. Nearby, the huge brick and limestone Seneca Knitting Mill building was being transformed into the Center for Great Women by the National Women’s Hall of Fame. When the mill was founded in 1844, it used only wool – not cotton – so it wouldn’t be contributing to the institution of slavery.

The rallying point between the Wesleyan Chapel and the Women’s Rights Park visitor’s center was filling up by the time I got there. The chapel is the site of two sweltering days in 1848 when 300 people sat in the sanctuary and argued for, and then signed, the Declaration of Sentiments, the founding document of American women’s rights. The chapel had survived after serving time as a roller rink and a Laundromat. I stared at the crumbly pink brick exterior and thought about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott making their case before a sweating audience, which included Frederick Douglass.

A sea of signs – “The Future is Nasty!” “Sad,” “Respect my Existence or Expect my Resistance,” “We’re all Immigrants,” “America Wakes Up Women Rise Up” – bobbed up and down as the speakers called for democratic engagement. It’s our right! It’s our duty! Today is the call to ACTION. There can be no bystanders in this moment in History. We can shape our future or it will be shaped for us!

Mary Simpson Smart was born in 1915 in Lyons, about 30 miles from Seneca Falls. She remembers wearing a white dress and riding in the 19th Amendment Victory Parade in 1920, when she was five. Ms. Smart, who looked like a tiny person in a puff of white hair, stood at the lectern and said, “I’m just here because I’m very old. Keep standing up for women’s equal rights. Carry on the way you’re doing because you’re doing great!”

I was one of 10,000 marchers in Seneca Falls that day, almost twice the population of the hamlet. We were encouraged to feel the pull of history and the deep sense of place as we marched and chanted, and then packed up our signs to head home. I tried to keep the power of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s fight for women’s potential in my head as I drove along Cayuga Lake, but it was hard.

Taking the long view and placing it within historical context left me thinking, Why do we have to keep fighting the same fight over and over again?

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Enterprising

in business

The

Viticulture and Wine Technology Program: Creating Winners in the Finger Lakes

by Frances Emerson

T

he Finger Lakes Community College Viticulture and Wine Technology program earned a big win at the 2016 New York Wine and Food Classic, in the Best Limited Production Wine Category. It was a solid confirmation of the hard work and dedication that has gone into the program since its inception.

The goal of three particular students in the Finger Lakes Community College (FLCC) program was never to win an award, but to satisfy an unquenchable thirst, they said. For the high-school student, a love for science led her to the curriculum, which she finds unique and challenging. For the computer graphics animator, it was the answer to how she could continue to create. For the successful attorney in Los Angeles, it was a passion, the drive to bring a lifelong dream to reality.

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New York State ... is now home to more than 900 wineries, farm wineries, breweries, distilleries and cideries.

For the Finger Lakes wine industry, it means that three more people are gaining the skills and expertise to create world-class wines, without having to leave the region.

The science

Marete Seymour started the FLCC courses when she was a senior at Penfield High School. She knew she wanted a career in science; physics, astrophysics and engineering were at the top of her list. While she was reading the book, Summer in a Glass, The Coming of Age of Winemaking in the Finger Lakes by Evan Dawson, she discovered the FLCC program and knew it was a perfect fit.

Learning how to make good wine has been a labor of love for Seymour.

Classes are pretty intense, she admits, from the basic “Introduction to Wines and Vines” to the actual growing, testing, researching and experimenting.

Then there’s the blending of the wines and the fermentation process.

“It’s a lot of hard but rewarding work,” she said. “There’s so much Photos courtesy Finger Lakes Community College

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Angela Eliasz, a 2016 FLCC graduate, talks to Paul Brock, assistant professor of viticulture, with Joseph Gonzalez in the background, during the grape crushing portion of the program in fall 2015.

Left: FLCC student Ricky Ameele takes part in the grape harvest at the teaching and demonstration vineyard FLCC shares with Cornell Cooperative Extension at Anthony Road Wine Company.

you can do with these skills! I can see myself in a winery one day, but for right now, I’m focusing on the research side.”

She’s looking into baccalaureate courses in enology. Cornell is among her top choices.

The creativity

Angela Eliasz, one of the four students who primarily worked on FLCC’s award-winning Rieslings, also started her winemaking journey with Dawson’s book. Today, she’s head cider maker for Empire Cider Company LLC in Geneva.

Eliasz relocated from California to her hometown of Rochester when her job as a Sony Pictures’ animator moved to Canada. She began teaching computer animation at Rochester Institute of Technology, but “I was missing the creation factor,” she said. She decided to go back to school – for the third time – to learn how to make wine.

Eliasz already holds degrees in international marketing, computer animation and professional cooking. A wine appreciation class first led her to the winemaking threshold; Dawson’s book gave her the courage to take the plunge. “Now I have my associate’s degree” she says proudly.

She’s happy to be making cider – the beverage is having a renaissance here in the Finger Lakes and wherever else there are apples. “I think making cider is harder than making wine,” Eliasz said, and relishes the idea of

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Teaching the

ART Winemaking

M

aking wine and growing grapes for wine have been major industries in the Finger Lakes since the 1820s.

From the Rieslings to the Rosés, and the Pinot Noirs to the Chardonnays, names such as Charles Fournier, Dr. Konstantin Frank, Taylor, Wagner, and Widmer have made winemaking a quintessential art in New York State.

Today, vineyardists and winemakers here take a leading role in creating internationally known, award-winning New York State wines. The state is now home to more than 900 wineries, farm wineries, breweries, distilleries and cideries.

What’s more, it improves with every harvest season, said Paul Brock, head of the Finger Lakes Community College Viticulture and Wine Technology program.

But that wasn’t always the case, he added, and described a time when wine production here almost ended.

A blessing in disguise

Before the 1970s, there were four or five companies buying all the grapes from local farmers and making all the wine, he explained. “Then they started pulling out and disappearing; cancelling contracts and leaving growers without a market to sell their grapes.” Families facing financial ruin had a major decision to make: stop growing grapes or try making wine themselves. But legislation at the time kept the growers from making wine and, in turn, a profit from their own product.

The Farm Winery Act of 1976 set the stage for the industry to bounce back and flourish, Brock said. It allowed grape growers to produce their own wines and sell them on premises; essentially eliminating the need for a distributor.

Farmers were skilled grape growers but unskilled winemakers, he noted. It took them years to learn how to make good wine; wine that was competitive on the international market. As the vintners grew older, they faced

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a new dilemma: who would teach the next generation? The University of California, Davis, and European universities have teaching labs right next to the vineyards, but the Finger Lakes Region did not. When approached by the vintners to create such a program, FLCC accepted the challenge.

For six years now it’s been a three-way partnership with Cornell, the Martini family of Anthony Road Wine Company in Penn Yan, and FLCC, said Brock. Peter Martini has been an instrumental, hands-on partner, “a tremendous mentor for our students.” Peter often takes on the role of a professor, teaching students the basics on the two acres of vineyard corded off for them at Anthony Road.

Growers and winemakers all across the Finger Lakes have offered support and contributed funds. Their help supplemented a state grant to construct the FLCC Viticulture and Wine Center off Pre-Emption Road in Geneva. It features a stateof-the-art teaching lab, education center and winery. The goal is to teach students to produce an internationally recognized, quality wine. The learning is hands-on, taking students from growing the grapes to producing the wines – or as program alumna Angela Eliasz put it, “from crush through bottling.” At every stage of that process, from start to finish, students have to react appropriately to whatever is going on. Making good wine it not just about having good grapes, Brock said.

What does this all mean for the Finger Lakes wine industry itself? Continued success, and the ability to compete on an international level. Making wine that is respected by the choosiest connoisseurs all over the world, especially in Europe. And satisfying that unquenchable thirst, perhaps for just a little while, of the next enthusiast who’s been called to the adventure!

The FLCC Viticulture and Wine Center opened in Geneva in 2015.

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Enterprising (Continued from page 49)

opening her own winery one day – if she can find the right partner to take on the duties of grower. She’s not so much the farmer or a connoisseur of winter weather, she admitted.

Eliasz thinks the Finger Lakes is still missing the boat on champagne and sparkling wines. “It’s perfect here for those kinds of grapes,” she laughed, “and you know, ‘Everything’s better with bubbles!’”

The goal is to teach students to produce an internationally recognized, quality wine.

The business

For Chris Missick, the decision to become a winery owner took shape when he got married. Part of the celebration was a wine tour through the Finger Lakes. He and his wife loved it.

The couple returned to their home in Los Angeles, and not long after, his mother called and said, “Remember that last winery we visited? It’s for sale.”

Missick made wine as a hobby, but when he and his family bought Villa Bellangelo in the heart of Dundee, he focused on the business side as general manager. Things went fairly well until his winemaker left to make his own product.

“That’s when it really started for me,” he said. He had begun the FLCC program in 2015, but that was when he took a step back and decided to become the winemaker at Bellangelo, combining his real-world experience with the knowledge he gained as an FLCC student.

Missick had so many good things to say about the program. “It’s a methodical approach to taking someone who hasn’t been in the industry and teaching them the core basics of the culture of the industry, all the way to the basic sciences of making wine. And that’s where it really gets good. The practice. You understand what you’re going to be doing and then you do what needs to happen in order to make

world-class wine.”

Missick and his family have big plans for Seneca Lake Country Club in Geneva, a property they purchased not long ago. Plans begin with a state-of-the-art winery. When Chris’s father, a land developer, visited FLCC’s Viticulture and Wine Center, he fell in love with it and wants to build one for Bellangelo, said Chris.

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Off the Easel

creating art

Pottery Artist Julia e. Dean Molding an Artistic Life in the Finger Lakes

by Nancy E. McCarthy

I

Mugs, Julia’s best-selling product, can be personalized.

n 2006, pottery artist Julia Dean and her husband Reverend Tim Dean vacationed in Ithaca, drawn to explore the Finger Lakes community after reading EcoVillage at Ithaca by Liz Walker. Julia recalls they were eating by the lake at the Farmers Market when they concluded Ithaca was different from any place they’d ever been to before – in a very good way. “We looked at each other and said ‘Where are we?!’” says Julia. The area’s “natural beauty and progressive culture within a small town atmosphere won our hearts.”

At that time, the Deans were living in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Julia, a new mother, had taken an extended break from teaching ceramics and making pottery. It was awkward to work “at the wheel” when she was pregnant and after their daughter was born in 2004, she found it difficult to balance pottery and caring for Ella. “Clay is pretty demanding, a little needy,” Julia explains – the irony not lost on her that a baby could be described the same way.

A year after that Ithaca visit they moved there, making the decision before either had work lined up. In retrospect, it didn’t hurt that the community embraced the arts. As the family settled in, Tim accepted a position as a Cayuga Medical Center hospital chaplain, Ella began preschool and Julia dived back into pottery making and began creating a new body of work.

Today, the potter has hit her stride. Julia opened The Clay School in 2015, a community teaching studio which also houses her own separate pottery production studio. Julia’s output is prolific: her original hand thrown pottery is sold at over 60 retailers nationally and through her online Etsy store.

“Julia’s work is distinctive and lovely,” says Andrea Bellavigna, who manages the Watkins Glen State Park Gift Shop. The shop carries mugs, wine chillers, ornaments and other items from her rustic Woodland Collection. Woodland pieces feature Julia’s signature rich blue glaze and surfaces decorated with leaf impressions. Other Finger Lakes outlets selling her pottery include the Busy Bee Market in Sheldrake and Ithacamade, an Ithaca gift shop.

Molding an Artist

When Julia was 10, she and her mother visited Colonial Williamsburg. Julia was mesmerized by an artist working at a potter’s wheel, forming a lump of clay into a pitcher. That singular exposure made a lasting impression, but she would not have the opportunity to explore the clay medium until college. Growing up in the small town of Marion, Kentucky, Julia drew and painted (and played piano) but she didn’t take art classes. In high school, she had to choose between advanced academics or art.

While there was a dearth of formal art education, Julia was deeply influenced by the skilled master stone craftsmen employed by her family’s monument business. Henry & Henry Monuments, established in 1881, was run by her maternal grandfather during her childhood years.

Woodland and Beachcomber collections include square and round ramekins.

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“I was around people who worked with their hands and were making things,” Julia says. With a proud nod to the talented legacy of the stone workers, she considers herself both a clay artist and skilled craftsman.

Though she focused on pursuing a degree in education at Murray State University in Kentucky, Julia also took art courses – and finally got her chance at the pottery wheel. “It felt like I had imagined,” she says. “Familiar, like I already knew what I was doing.”

In 1998, Julia and Tim (who met working in a youth camp) married the day she graduated and they moved to Fort Worth, Texas. He attended Brite Divinity School to attain his Master of Divinity. Julia started teaching reading to middle schoolers by day and, at night, took ceramics classes to hone her skills.

She was hooked on clay!

The young couple moved again in 2000, after Tim graduated and accepted a youth ministry position at a church in Charlotte. Julia didn’t return to a traditional classroom setting. Instead, she worked at a clay supply store and taught ceramics there. She established her own home studio, too, and began selling her work at art shows.

Life in the Finger Lakes

After the family moved to Ithaca, Julia set up her home studio and later started teaching at Cornell University’s pottery studio. When it closed in 2011, Julia recognized the resultant void in the arts community. After scouting an appropriate location, she opened The Clay School in 2015. The 2,000-square-foot space at the South Hill Business Campus in Ithaca houses a teaching studio offering classes, workshops, events, and shelf rentals for independent potters.

Staff instructors teach all ages and levels, including after-school and home-school sessions for children. Julia fills in as needed and occasionally leads specialty workshops. Most of her time is spent in her own ceramics production studio, also at the school, creating her pottery collections. Two employees assist with surface decorating, glazing and loading kilns, plus packing and shipping items. The school’s kiln room is used by both studios.

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The Potter’s Process

LIFL

APP EXTRAS! Get the “Life in the Finger Lakes” APP for more photos and articles!

Bonus Stuff!

Julia e. Dean currently designs and produces small-batch, hand-thrown, functional stoneware pottery pieces in two collections: Woodland and Beachcomber. The Woodland Collection’s stained surface designs are hand-rolled, locally-gathered leaves. The Beachcomber Collection features a stained surface design of shell impressions, using shells gathered from various U.S. beaches and coasts.

Surfaces are decorated when the thrown form is still slightly wet, at a stage of the process potters often call “soft leather hard.” The piece is then dried completely and fired for the first time at 1,800 degrees. This firing is called bisque, which turns the clay into soft stone and makes it “thirsty” for the glaze application.

Stain is applied and then wiped off of the surface area to bring forth the depth of the impression. Glaze is then applied to the remaining surface, to add color and create a food-safe surface for functionality. The second and final glaze firing is a toasty 2,300 degrees!

Julia strives to add at least one new product to her body of work each year.

Judy Hoffman, with a ceramics degree and 50 years of experience “throwing pots,” connected with Julia over a year ago when both volunteered for the Empty Bowls benefit dinner for Loaves & Fishes (a local community kitchen). Hoffman was impressed with Julia’s artistry, passion for her pottery, school and her commitment to helping others. “Her love of art and people is evident in her pottery and in the community of people who use The Clay School,” says Hoffman. “I cannot help but feel happy when I am there!” Hoffman now teaches classes at The Clay School and is its program coordinator.

The school is a welcoming space for would-be and experienced potters to work and learn side by side. Its goal is to “foster a sense of community among students of all ages and enrich their continuing education through shared experiences around making art.”

Not all artists pursue art full-time but Julia has advice to those considering an art career. “Don’t give up … just keep walking,” she says. “An artist’s journey evolves – there is nothing linear about it.”

Visit juliaedean.com to view the artist’s work and clayschoolithaca.com to learn more about The Clay School.

Beginning pottery students learn to center and throw on electric wheels at The Clay School.

• Download on the App Store for iPhone and iPad • Get it on Google play for Android devices If you already downloaded the APP, don’t forget to UPDATE it!

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Nooks & Crannies

a little bit of everything

Movie Tavern offers a modern take on the nostalgic movie house

From Candy and Popcorn to Cuisine and Wine

by Jim Hughes

W

e settled back in the reclining leather seats with attached tray tables as the movie flickered across the silver screen. Sipping a chilled glass of Pinot Grigio, I munched on a Bacon Burger Paradise sandwich and Caesar salad. My wife opted for PanSeared Salmon and a frozen Margarita. What a luxurious way to enjoy a feature film … feet up, first-rate dining … sometimes life can be good.

We had ventured out to experience the new kid in the neighborhood, the Movie Tavern at Township 5 in Camillus.

State of the art, yet with a calculated retro look, it’s the next generation in movie theaters and the first of its kind, not only in the Finger Lakes Region but in all of New York State.

Far beyond our youthful perspective of the 1940s and ‘50s, the whole experience was a bit dazzling. High-tech movie viewing? Sure. But food and

Above: Cinema meets cuisine at the innovative Movie Tavern at the Township 5 complex in Camillus. Premium-quality food and drink, along with plush seating, provide a unique movie-going experience – one available for the first time in New York State.

Left, top: The Glen Theater in Watkins Glen. First opened in 1924, The Glen has survived, has been restored, and has maintained much of its original charm.

Left, bottom: Marquee of the Ohmann Theater in Lyons. The family owned theater has been carefully restored connecting its historic past with the present.

beverages ordered from your padded, reclining leather chair and served by waitstaff? That was new, even bizarre.

Pondering the experience later, a veil of reflection swept over me. Misty memories from long ago came rushing back; a time when viewing movies was different, so very different. A radiant image sprang to mind as I recalled watching motion pictures at Loew’s State Theatre – the country’s oldest theater chain – and perhaps the most lavish of the large “movie palaces” in downtown Syracuse.

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Capitol Theater, Newark (1925 – 1966)

Fisher Theater – later Strand Theater, Seneca Falls (1925 – 1955)

Elmwood Theater, Penn Yan (1921 – 1970)

The theater debuted in 1928 with seating for close to 3,000 patrons. Its rich red and gilded gold décor, grand staircase, exotic furnishings, and ornate chandeliers created what was then proclaimed as “the last word in theatrical luxury.” My memories of watching the stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age illuminate the screen in such opulent surroundings will never fade.

The era of large downtown theaters eventually waned and by the 1970s Loew’s State, worn and ragged, was threatened with demolition. Saved by a community group, it has been restored to its former glory as the Landmark Theater and hosts films, live performances and special events. Rochester’s Loew’s Theatre and the RKO Palace, two of the city’s finest and most elaborate movie palaces, were not quite so fortunate.

Their splendor was crushed under the wrecking ball in the 1960s.

The huge downtown theaters in cities like Syracuse and Rochester are only part of the story. Memories of a

multitude of modest movie houses lingered, more wistful flashbacks to simpler times. Scattered throughout city neighborhoods and prominent along the main streets of many small towns, flashing lights promised the fantasy and adventure that waited within.

As the 19th century melted into the 20th, many of these had evolved from “opera houses” where live theater once took place. Often folding chairs or straight benches provided the only seating. A few were housed in fancy buildings, others in a second floor auditorium either over the village hall or somewhere along the business block. The opera houses later morphed into venues for the silent film era, later followed by the introduction of the first “talkies.”

As the popularity of moving pictures increased, new theaters popped up in Finger Lakes communities and the rest of the country with ticket booths, glossy photo displays, neon-emblazoned marquees and a variety of monikers: Park, Globe, Glen, Regent, Rialto, Babcock,

Capitol, and Temple. Folks in Skaneateles patronized the Colonial. People lined up at the Playhouse in Canandaigua. The Majestic along Broadway in Hornell was one of three theaters in that booming railroad town.

In my city neighborhood we usually attended the Elmwood or the Cameo – special places, although neither flashed a trace of the glamour found at their downtown counterparts. With a bag of popcorn and a packet of Milk Duds or Good & Plenty, we would while away an afternoon with a cowboy flick (Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy were my favorites), a cartoon or two, a wave of promising previews, and the latest episode of a cliffhanger serial. At night the screen gave way to people like Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper and Marilyn Monroe. Most seats had an errant spring poking through here or there and a tear or two in the upholstery. The floor was sticky from years of spilled soda pop, but who cared?

Sadly, most of these theaters have long ago passed by the wayside.

Some sit vacant, their marquees blank for years. Others have been demolished or remodeled to accommodate other businesses. No sign remains of the Elmwood in Penn Yan. It was torn down and replaced by village offices.

The State in Waterloo is now a Chinese restaurant, its movie house façade from 1934 to 1955 just barely recognizable.

The Strand in Seneca Falls closed down in 1955 and was later demolished. It was there in the 1940s that local barber Tommy Bellissima attended a showing of It’s A Wonderful Life. On a poster, he

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recognized the face of director Frank Capra as the same man whose hair he had trimmed a year or two before in his shop. Many believe that Capra’s visit to Seneca Falls influenced his portrayal of “Bedford Falls” in the classic film.

A scattering of old-school movie houses still exist. Constructed in 1915, the Ohmann Theater in Lyons is a gem that perfectly melds the past with the present. Since the days of silent films, the family-owned business has presented movies, vaudeville, musical performances and special events of all sorts. Closed for some years, it was revived in 2005 by the Ohmann family and received recognition by the Theatre Historical Society.

The modern renovation has preserved the history, charm and character of the original movie house.

Ah, well. Memories of the past are inescapable … forgotten are rough edges shaved off by time while only a pleasant essence remains. I thought once more of that little theater in my neighborhood, and of sitting on a lumpy seat with a box of Sno-Caps watching a good “shoot-‘em-up” on the silver screen.

Then my thoughts wandered back to the nuances of modern technology and the finery of a cinema experience at the Movie Tavern. The luxury of that reclining chair with a menu of food and beverage at my beck and call could be habit-forming.

A perceptive quote came to mind summing up the mixed emotions of joining a nostalgic past with a comfortable present … “Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.”

LIFL

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046-072.LIFL_MARAPR_2017.indd 57

Showroom

Loew’s State Theater in Syracuse was saved, restored, and as the Landmark Theater once again exhibits the grand décor of its golden era.

1 Bella Vista Drive Ithaca, NY 14850 M ar ch /A pr i l 2017 ~

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Fruit of the Vine

wine, spirits and brews

Winemaker

Vinny Aliperti Story and photos by Jason Feulner

Billsboro is located on the northwestern shore of Seneca Lake along Route 14 and is open all year long. Visit billsborowinery.com for more details. Billsboro also runs a tasting room at the Rose Hill Mansion in Waterloo during the summer months.

To further promote Syrah in the Finger Lakes, Billsboro will be hosting a tasting event on March 18, 2017, featuring a collection of the limited number of Syrah-producers in the Finger Lakes.

Please contact the winery directly for more details.

T

here’s been a persistent whisper in the Finger Lakes for a few years now that winemakers are becoming more inclined to approach Syrah, a grape often associated with warmer climates. Despite Syrah being a topic of conversation, there are still precious few official wines being made in the region. Therefore, the announcement from the 2016 New York Wine & Food Classic that the panel had selected Billsboro’s 2013 Syrah as winner of the Governor’s Cup elicited a bit of a double take among observers. Has Syrah have finally “arrived” in the Finger Lakes?

Vinny Aliperti – winemaker and co-owner of Billsboro with his wife, Kim – seems to take all of the recent extra attention with a grain of salt. Sure, the lieutenant governor recently came to the Billsboro tasting room for a photo and yes, the 2013 Syrah in question subsequently sold out in a matter of weeks, but Aliperti sees Syrah with many of the same question marks he had when he produced his first vintage in 2007. “I saw an opportunity to explore something relatively new to the area,” he explains. “I’m excited to be on the front lines of this grape and continue to figure out what the Finger Lakes style is.”

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A native of the New York City area, Aliperti came into the wine business after a series of friendly, and unplanned, connections led him to the cellar. He cut his teeth for a few years in the Long Island wine region before he and his wife decided to pursue a change of pace. “We came to the Finger Lakes almost on a lark,” he says. “I did some site visits and became intrigued by the area’s potential.” Arriving in 2000 as an assistant at Wiemer, Aliperti became the winemaker at Atwater in 2001 where he has remained ever since.

And that’s where the story is especially interesting.

Although Vinny and Kim purchased Billsboro in 2006, he has continued to make wine at Atwater as well, an arrangement for which he is tremendously grateful. Kim and staff run the Billsboro tasting room, and Aliperti can remain focused on his passion of winemaking for two respected brands in the Finger Lakes.

One of the important distinctions between the wines Aliperti makes at Atwater and at Billsboro is the sourcing of grapes. Atwater is a well-planted estate winery. Billsboro, on the other hand, sources most of its grapes from the much-heralded Sawmill Creek vineyard on the eastern shore

~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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ATTENTION:

Parents & Grandparents

Life in the Finger Lakes

3rd Annual

What is Syrah?

First and foremost, Syrah is not an unusual grape in terms of worldwide plantings, but it’s one that been associated with full-bodied, warm-climate reds. Most consumers know the grape as Shiraz, as it is popularly known in Australia – one of the leading producers of wines made from the Syrah grape.

Yet, in the Rhone region of France from where the grape originates, a moderate climate produces medium-bodied wines that are more in line with a cool-climate style found in the Finger Lakes. If one takes into account the sheer variety of regions worldwide that produce Syrah, it’s easy to conclude that the grape shows some versatility.

Syrah is a wine with a high degree of tannins, and needs aging to be enjoyed. This fact, coupled with the time it takes to bring grape plantings to maturity, means that the supply in the Finger Lakes will not increase in the immediate future even as the wine’s reputation grows.

of Seneca Lake.

It was at Sawmill Creek that growers Eric and Tina Hazlitt planted some Syrah in the early 2000s. Vinny Aliperti was one of the first winemakers they approached about this experimental grape – a challenge he embraced. “I’m really fortunate to work with a grower who takes chances.” Aliperti says.

In fact, Billsboro pushes the envelope a bit on the varietal front, offering not only Syrah but Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc – two varietals that are not universally offered in the Finger Lakes – as well as Albarino, a white wine made from grapes native to northwestern Spain. As far as Aliperti knows, Billsboro is the only winery

LIFL

in the Finger Lakes making Albarino. He believes that regional consumers are becoming more interested in unusual varieties of wines, Syrah included.

While the Governor’s Cup-winning 2013 Syrah is all sold out, Billsboro has subsequent vintages lined up for release. Aliperti is especially excited about the 2016 vintage, which won’t see the bottle for a few more years.

Overall, he’s optimistic about the grape’s future in the Finger Lakes. “I think we’ll be seeing more Syrah planted – which needs good drainage and exposure – but there’s been success with it to inspire others. I continue to be very bullish on the Finger Lakes brand.”

Get the “Life in the Finger Lakes” APP for more photos and articles!

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Children’s Photo Contest!

Deadline

Feb. 28, 2017 Age Groups • Up to 9 years old • 10 to 13 years old • 14 to 16 years old

Prizes • 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for best photo in each age group.

• Prize plaques will be awarded, along with publication in the May/June 2017 issue.

Photo Entries

Photos can be color or black and white.

Photos can be taken using a standard camera, and mobile devices such as smart phones, pads, notebooks and mp3 players.

Subject matter is to consist of landscape and nature shots, architectural, animals and any other appropriate subject that features the Finger Lakes Region in a positive light. The photos are to be taken within the 14-county Finger Lakes Region. Entries are limited to a total of 5 per person.

Send photos to mark@lifeinthefingerlakes.com or by mail to: Life in the Finger Lakes Children’s Photo Contest PO Box 1080, Geneva NY 14456

Visit LifeintheFingerLakes.com for more information M ar ch /A pr i l 2017 ~

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marketplace

Seneca Lake Wine Trail

Wines that rise to

5576 State Rt. 14, Dundee, NY fulkersonwinery.com 2015 Governor’s Cup Winner

Beer, Hard Cider & Root Beer

Cafe Toscana serving lunch daily Magnificent views of estate vineyards & Seneca Lake

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Present this ad for 2 complimentary wine tastings

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2 complimentary beer or wine tastings with this ad Live music every Saturday & Sunday!

Located on the northwest side of Seneca Lake, just south of Geneva 4200 Rte 14 * 315-719-8371 whitespringswinery.com

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Outdoors

marketplace

Wine, Spirits & Brews

(“Lake Sturgeon” continued from page 17)

sturgeon anywhere in New York State.

Any sturgeon incidentally caught must be released unharmed. See the DEC’s website for more specific information.

The biggest sturgeon success story by far is probably that of the Genesee River stocking program. At one time the Genesee ranked as one of the most polluted rivers in the country due to the combined discharges of toxic chemicals, industrial waste, urban storm water runoff, and agricultural runoff from rural areas further upstream. The river originates in Pennsylvania and flows 140 miles northward before emptying into Lake Ontario at Rochester. Along the way, it accumulates agricultural pollutants from eroded soils that contain fertilizers, insecticides, and manure runoff, which start forming a toxic brew many miles upstream even before mixing with industrial and urban contaminants as the river flows closer to the lake.

Dr. Jeff Wyatt is the head of veterinary medicine at Seneca Park Zoo, as well as a professor and the department chair of the University of Rochester’s Division of Comparative Medicine. He was also the very first person who recommended that I interview Dawn. He said, “Seneca Park Zoo veterinary staff has been assisting Dr. Dawn Dittman … with her program reintroducing and monitoring 5,000 hatchery reared sturgeon in the lower Genesee River since 2003.

The oldest fish are now over 4 feet long and are expected to spawn near lower falls by 2020. These thriving, repatriated native fishes are excellent bio-indicators of an improved Genesee River health.”

Although the river cleanup efforts that are currently underway still have a long way to go, the Genesee River has already been given the thumbs-up by lake sturgeon themselves. A total of 5,400 fingerlings have been released in the river since the program began.

During a recent net sampling, Dawn found that 95 percent of the sturgeon stocked the previous fall were still in the river and were doing well. It looks like they just might be able to sustain themselves after all.

Est. 1962

A Legacy Four Generations in the Making

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Get to the Point Breathtaking vistas.

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Enjoy our premium selections and stay for lunch at our on-site eatery, Amelia’s.

Business Hours: 20 miles Winery Sun-Thurs: 10 am-5 pm south of Auburn Fri and Sat: 10 am-6 pm on scenic Route 90 Deli Fri, Sat and Sun: 11 am-4 pm Order Online: www.longpointwinery.com

1485 Lake Road • Aurora, NY 13026 (315) 364-6990 • mail@longpointwinery.com

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marketplace

Culture & Attractions

ANTIQUE WIRELESS MUSEUM

Experience Two Centuries of Communication Technology Voice of America Station, Titanic Radio Room, 1925 Radio Store, First Transistor Radio, Working Transmitters, First Cell Phone and Much, Much More!

Enjoy what’s fresh & locally sourced. Call us today for your reservation!

585.394.7070 Open: Tuesday 10am-3pm & Saturday 1-5pm

6925 State Route 5, Bloomfield, New York 14469 585-257-5119 • www.antiquewireless.org

Visit nywcc.com for hours & specials!

800 S. Main St. Canandaigua, NY

SATURDAY April 29th, 2017 10am–7pm

&

Steuben County Arts Trail

SUNDAY April 30th, 2017 Noon–5pm

Galleries • Mixed Media • Painters Potters • Photography Come experience LIVE demonstrations at many of the studios and galleries on the Arts in Bloom trail. Where you will get to meet the artists, watch them create, and learn what inspires their amazing work.

Celebrating 30 years

Saturdays April 29- December 9 8am - 4:30pm Memorial Day, Labor Day, July 4th www.thewindmill.com

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Better than you Remember More than you can Imagine...

For more information: artsinbloom.net facebook.com/artsinbloom 607-569-3767 This project is made possible, in part, with public funds from NYSCA’s Decentralization Program, administered regionally by the Arts Council of the Southern Finger Lakes.

~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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Naples

marketplace

Chili & Chocolate March 10

Museum complex features a tavern c1796, log house c1850, school house c1878, blacksmith shop c1870, and agricultural barn.

73 W. Pulteney St., Corning, NY Open Mon-Sat 10am-4pm 607-937-5281 • heritagevillagesfl.org

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MONICA’S PIES Famous for our Grape Pies Available Year Round

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Call to order yours!

A variety of pies available daily also chicken pot pies, quiche, jams, jellies & gifts.

Open 7 days a week, 9AM-5PM

Call 800-344-0559 Today or visit LifeintheFingerLakes.com

7599 Rte, 21, Naples

585-374-2139

www.monicaspies.com

Bristol Views Bed & Breakfast 6

6932 County Rd. 12 Naples, NY 14512

585-374-8875

www.bristolviews.com Henry and Barb Owens

Your home away from home, located high above Canandaigua Lake with awesome views. Hiking, biking, wineries & more await you. We also offer a beautiful wedding site that will fulfill your dreams.

Let us help you discover the Finger Lakes!

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marketplace

Shopping & Services

40th

Season of...

“The Best Soft Ice Cream in Town” Geneva

...a different kind of jewelry store. handmade • custom • bridal • glass • wood • fibers • ceramics

Representing independent artists throughout the country.

www.fingerlakescoffee.com 800-420-6154

Visit our locations.

Farmington Pittsford Plaza Corner of Routes Monroe Ave. 96 & 332 (CVS Plaza) (Next to Shear Ego) 585-742-6218 585-385-0750 Strong Memorial Hospital Thompson Hospital Destiny USA Mall (Syracuse, NY)

Morganite and Diamond gold ring trio

by Cole Sheckler, Ithaca, NY Photo by Annie Vanacore

38 East Genesee St. Skaneateles imagineskaneateles.com • 315-685-6263

758 PreEmption Rd 315-781-0858 Drive Thru Available

Dresden

(corner of Rtes 14 & 54) 315-531-5311

Just 4 miles East of Penn Yan

Hard & Soft Serve Gluten Free Non Dairy Low & No Fat Options Cholesterol Options Credit Cards Accepted

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Sign up at LifeintheFingerLakes.com

~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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marketplace

Camping Hejamada Campground & RV Park

Family Camping at its best!

Located in the Finger Lakes Region

Come see why we’re the ideal campground for caravans, jamborees, group functions, families and individual campers.

(315)776-5887 • 877-678-0647

www.hejamadacampground.com Cheerful Valley Campground

Discover...

Family Camping at its Best

Gifts

Free Vintage Fire Truck Rides • Real Log Cabins Planned Activities • Themed Weekend • All Type Sites Large Swimming Pool • Ceramic Tile Rest Rooms Rec. Hall • Playground • Great Fishing • Large Fields Peaceful River Valley • Large Grassy Sites

It’s a Shopping Experience...

Beyond Ordinary Open Monday - Saturday 2 West Main Street, Clifton Springs 315-548-4438

1412 Rt. 14 Phelps, NY 14532 Ph: 315-781-1222 • info@cheerfulvalleycampground.com www.cheerfulvalleycampground.com

Clute Memorial Park & Campground • Full Hook Ups Including Cable & Wi/Fi

• Across From Beautiful Seneca Lake

• Walking Distance to Downtown

• Community Center & Pavilion Rentals

• Boat Launch

155 S. Clute Park Drive (Boat Launch Road) Watkins Glen, NY 14891 607-535-4438 www.watkinsglen.us

Recollections Antiques

ristol Near B erial in A Mounta re Park Adventu

Canandaigua • 585-394-7493

Chair Caning Call Chris or Paula • All types of chair re-weaving • 30 years experience

• 100 Acres • 60´x80´ sites w/ Full Hook-ups • Modern Facilities • Playground

• Pavilion • Fishing Pond • Large Pool • Store • Ice • Propane

• Cabin Rentals • Cabin with Full Amenities • Hiking Trails • Wi-Fi • New Solar Canopy

585-229-2290 • e-mail: brwoodland@aol.com • www.bristolwoodlands.com

4835 South Hill Road • Canandaigua, NY 14424

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Real Estate

DON’T BUY A WATERFRONT PROPERTY WITHOUT TALKING TO

MARK MALCOLM II

marketplace

“HE’S GOT A CORNER ON THE MARKET” Keuka Lake-Gorgeous and newer, 3 bedroom, 3 bath contemporary, privately positioned with 140’ of natural lake frontage. Vaulted ceilings, stone fireplace, enclosed porch, master suite, decks, beach house, attached garage, with 1.5 acres, and all built by a highly respected, local builder.

Now priced at $539,000!

Keuka Lake -2003 colonial “on the water”! 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, 2400 sq. ft., with 104’ of natural frontage.

All public utilities, drive to the door, wonderful permanent dock, hickory floors, radiant heat, gas fireplace, and the list goes on & on & on... Now priced at $499,000.

Keuka Lake-A true “Keuka Throwback” Open front porch, 3 bedrooms with open ceilings, 67’ of natural frontage, eat-in country kitchen, public water, garage and plenty of parking on the upper side of the road, and positioned across from the very tip-of-Bluff. A real charmer, and it’s completely furnished. Now priced at $339,000.

5890 West Lake Rd., Fleming $225,000

Mark Malcolm II “KEUKA LAKE’S TOP AGENT” 315-536-6163 Direct

email: mmalcolmii@aol.com

Website: MARKMALCOLM.COM (w/mobile app)

75’ of Level Year Round West side Owasco Lakefront. Nice 2 bedroom, 1 bath double wide in great location with fabulous lake views. Public water, sewer and gas. Easy in and out. Close to Auburn. Just south of VanEss Brook. Wood burning fireplace to cozy up in front of. Call today to schedule a showing!

335’ Cayuga Lake

Exceedingly private 4 BR 3 bath log home situated on 4.2 wooded acres of west shore; includes 2 car garage, two fireplaces, guest cabin and drive to door access, two docks. $689,000.

315-568-9404 (OFFICE) 315-246-3997 (CELL)

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97 FALL STREET, PO BOX 386 • SENECA FALLS, NY 13148

~ L i f e iSENECAYUGA@AOL.COM n t h e F i n g e r L a k e s . c•o SENECAYUGA.COM m

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LIFL

APP EXTRAS!

Get the “Life in the Finger Lakes” APP for more photos and articles!

Read about Rochester’s Oatka Creek Park on the APP!

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Real Estate

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marketplace

Accommodations

Call NOW to Book

800-823-0612 Penn Yan, New York VineyardInnAndSuites.com

CREATE

Your VACATION

Start by Booking a Lakefront Vacation Home

Bed • Breakfast • Events Apple Country Retreat

2215 Lord’s Hill Rd • Tully, NY 13159 315-748-3977 • www.applecountryretreat.com

Showcases over 50 B & B’s, each dedicated to exceeding expectations of the discriminating traveler.

Maxwell Creek Inn Bed & Breakfast

7563 Lake Road, Sodus, NY maxwellcreekinn-bnb.com

Finger Lakes Mill Creek Cabins 2382 Parmenter Road Lodi, NY 14860

607-582-7673

GIFT CERTIFICATES are available on our website for use at participating Member Inns.

Please visit www.flbba.com ­­­­­­­­­­­­68­

Two, fully furnished, pet friendly cabins nestled on 40 secluded acres near the national forest and wine trails. Available year round.

www.fingerlakescabins.com

~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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marketplace

Canandaigua – The Chosen Spot

You can count on us!

Hilton Garden Inn - Ithaca

130 E. Seneca St, Ithaca, NY 14850 Tel: 607-277-8900 Fax: 607-277-8910 ©2005 Hilton Hospitality , Inc.

1819

Red Brick Inn

Original Artwork Paintings, mixed media, drawings, glass, hand crafted jewelry, sculptures, ceramics, pastel

A quaint and quiet escape in the heart of the Finger Lakes

Workshops & Classes 2081 Route 230, Dundee, NY • 607-243-8844 www.1819inn.com • stay@1819inn.com

71 S. Main Street, Canandaigua, NY 585-394-0030 www.prrgallery.com

FREE weekly e-newsletter Fresh content every week Calendar of events Informative Advertising Sign up at LifeintheFingerLakes.com

A Finger Lakes landmark for classic gifts, extraordinary accessories for home and garden, handcrafted jewelry, apparel, fine stationery and whims w h i m ses! ie s!

56 South Main St. • Downtown Canandaigua Open Daily • 585-394-6528

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4

1

Outdoors (“Woodpeckers” continued from page 72)

5 2

3

6

(c) Evan W. Barbour, Bartels Science Illustration Intern/Cornell Lab of Ornithology. From The Birds of Sapsucker Woods: 100 Common Species by Jeffrey V. Wells and Allison Childs Wells, 2005.

The Finger Lakes region is home to six species of woodpecker 1. Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) Growing to lengths in excess of 9 inches, this woodpecker is notable for the wide red band that runs along the nape of its neck. Males also show red along the cap.

2. Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) Our smallest woodpecker is also our most common. It is often seen near feeders and in wooded areas. The male is delineated from the female by the small patch of red on the back of its head.

3. Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus)

At a glance this bird is sometimes mistaken for the mourning dove because of its coffeecolored plumage. Unlike other woodpeckers it can often be seen foraging for insects on the ground. The flicker’s tongue – the longest among our native woodpecker species – is perfectly adapted for raiding anthills. Males are distinguished from females by the appearance of a black “mustache” stripe.

4. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) As the name suggests, this woodpecker is easily identified by its golden-feathered abdomen. Males are red-throated whereas females are white-throated. In contrast to other woodpeckers, sapsuckers typically drill in neat, shallow rows.

5. Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villous)

This medium-sized woodpecker drums loud and fast against trees with aggressive, machine gun bursts. Like the downy, males show red on the back of the head.

6. Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)

Reaching lengths of sixteen inches, the pileated is our largest native woodpecker. Its call resembles a high-pitched cackle. Though both males and females sport a bright red topknot, only the male has a red cheek patch.

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wood. I look up to find a pileated woodpecker. At 16 inches in length, the largest of our native species is chipping away at an immense beech. Fibrous chunks of wood tumble to the ground. The bird’s topknot is a stroke of red paint splashed against a gray canvas.

Nothin’ to It But Suet

There’s a common misconception among outdoor enthusiasts that you need to travel to remote, out-of-the way places to congregate with nature. Nothing could be further from the truth.

According to Greig, woodpeckers are highly adaptable and well-suited for assimilating into what she calls “humanmodified landscapes.” This includes residential areas.

According to a 2011 report released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, one in five Americans identify as active birders, with backyard viewing accounting for 88 percent of all recreational bird watching. This means that of the 47 million people in the United States who enjoy watching birds, more than 40 million do so from their porch or living room. We are a nation of backyard birdwatchers.

The most effective way to attract woodpeckers to your backyard is through the use of suet feeders. Suet is a combination of animal fat, seeds and nuts pressed into a flat cake. This can easily be placed in a wire basket feeder and hung in your backyard.

It’s little wonder why suet is so prized among woodpeckers. “It’s fatty and rich in nutritional content,” Greig says. Though woodpeckers will visit suet feeders yearround, this nutrition is especially valued during the winter months when food is scarce.

There’s one important way you can help facilitate backyard viewing, she adds. “Leaving snags will only increase the chances that woodpeckers will visit your feeders.” “Snags,” or standing pieces of deadwood, are integral to the health of an ecosystem. Many animals rely on them for basking, nesting and sustenance. One snag alone may house multiple colonies of insects, providing ample foraging opportunities for woodpeckers.

If you’re fortunate enough to attract woodpeckers to your backyard, more aggressive birds, such as blue jays, might startle them away. Squirrels, too, have a propensity for raiding suet feeders. While there are a number of products on the market to aid you in preventing rodents from robbing your feeders, Greig offers this simple rule of thumb: “Place you feeders far enough away from other structures like houses and trees so that squirrels can’t jump to them.”

Though I have seen every species of woodpecker indigenous to our region, I am most enthralled by our male red-bellied. More often heard than seen, he swoops down from the treetops to alight on our feeder, stabbing aggressively at our suet block before disappearing like a mirage.

With the incidence of woodpecker sightings on the rise, it looks like I’ll be seeing a lot more of his kind in the coming years.

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Index of Advertisers March/April 2017

COMPANY....................... PAGE....... PHONE...............WEBSITE / E-MAIL

COMPANY.......................... PAGE....... PHONE...............WEBSITE / E-MAIL

Antique Revival.................................... 53......... 800-780-7330........ antiquerevival.com

The Jewelbox........................................ 53......... 800-711-7279......... fingerlakescharm.com

Belhurst Castle........................................7......... 315-781-0201.......... belhurst.com

Kendal at Ithaca...................................C3......... 877-915-7633.......... kai.kendal.org/FL

Bristol Mountain ....................................17............................................ bristolmountain.com

Keuka Arts Festival.............................. 33............................................ keukaartsfestival.com

Bristol Mountain Aerial Adventures.................................17............................................ bristolmountain.com

Kitchen Theatre Company................ 46......... 607-272-0570......... kitchentheatre.org

Caprini Realtors......................................4......... 585-330-8258........ caprinirealtors.com

Longview............................................... 57......... 607-375-6320......... ithacarelongview.com

Caves Kitchens..................................... 57......... 585-478-4636......... cavesmillwork.com

Morgan Marine.....................................13......... 315-536-8166.......... morganmarine.net

Clifton Springs Chamber of Commerce..................... 35......... 315-462-8200......... cliftonspringschamber.com

Naples Visitors Association............... 29............................................ naplesvalleyny.com

CNY Arts................................................ 47......... 315-435-2155.......... cnyarts.org

Rasa Spa................................................ 46......... 607-273-1740......... rasaspa.com

Cobtree Vacation Rentals.................. 35......... 315-789-1144.......... cobtree.com

Rochester Regional Health...................9............................................ rochesterregional.org

Corning Museum of Glass................ 53......... 800-732-6845........ cmog.org

Roseland Wake Park............................17............................................ bristolmountain.com

Cricket on the Hearth......................... 23......... 585-385-2420......... cricketonthehearth.com

Route 96 Power & Paddle..................11......... 607-659-7693........ powerandpaddle.com

del Lago....................................................3............................................ dellagoresort.com

Seager Marine.......................................21......... 585-394-1372......... seagermarine.com

Downtown Ithaca Alliance.................17......... 607-277-8679......... downtownithaca.com

Seneca County Chamber...................12......... 800-732-1848......... fingerlakescentral.com

Eastview Mall.........................................51......... 585-223-4420......... eastviewmall.com

Seneca Lake Winery Association......13......... 877-536-2717.......... senecalakewine.com

Elmira Corning Regional Airport.........5............................................ ecairport.com

SignLanguage Inc................................ 49......... 585-237-2620......... signlanguageinc.com

Ferris Hills..............................................C2......... 585-393-0410......... ferrishills.com

Smith Boys.............................................16............................................ smithboys.com

Finger Lakes Tram............................... 29......... 315-986-8090......... fingerlakestram.com

Timber Frames..................................... 27......... 585-374-6405......... timberframesinc.com

Fireplace Fashions............................... 45......... 877-409-6555......... fireplacefashions.com

Wagner Vineyards...............................56......... 866-924-6378......... wagnervineyards.com

Flights of Fancy: Finger Lakes Wine Classic................. 47......... 800-228-2760......... fingerlakeswineclassic.com

Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel................15......... 607-535-6116.......... watkinsglenharborhotel.com

Larry’s Latrines..................................... 28......... 607-324-5015......... larryslatrines.com

New Energy Works.............................C4......... 585-924-3860........ newenergyworks.com

Wild Birds Unlimited.......................... 27......... 877-266-4928......... sapsuckerwoods.com

Gardner Construction........................ 28......... 315-573-1474.......... gardnerconstructionny.com Granger Homestead............................11......... 585-394-1472......... grangerhomestead.org Halsey’s Restaurant............................. 23......... 315-789-4070......... halseysgeneva.com Hilton Garden Inn Ithaca......................2......... 877-STAY-HGI......... ithaca.hgi.com Hotel Ithaca.......................................... 49......... 607-272-1000......... thehotelithaca.com I-Wood-Care......................................... 33......... 800-721-7715.......... iwoodc.com The Inn on the Lake............................21......... 800-228-2801......... theinnonthelake.com

MARKETPLACE ADVERTISING

Naples............................................. Pg. 63

Accommodations................... Pg. 68-69

Real Estate for Sale................ Pg. 66-67

Camping......................................... Pg. 65

Seneca Lake Wine Trail............... Pg. 60

Canandaigua................................. Pg. 69

Shopping & Services.............. Pg. 64-65

Culture & Attractions.............. Pg. 62-63

Wine, Spirits & Brews...................Pg. 61

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Outdoors

in the open air

Wacky, Wonderful

Woodpeckers

by Jon Ulrich

T

here are few things in nature as captivating as the precise, mechanical movements of woodpeckers.

Watching them, I envision a system of bolts, springs and gears functioning in perfect unison. One minute they’re dancing around my feeders like spastic wind-up toys, and the next minute they’re gone – a blur of mottled plumage.

Dr. Emma Greig has been studying birds, including our native woodpeckers, for more than a decade. As the Project Leader for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Feeder Watch program, she’s responsible for tracking data collected from feeder sites throughout North America.

I met with Grieg in early December at the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Ithaca to discuss our resident woodpecker species. She greeted me in the observatory and we took the stairs to the building’s second floor overlooking Sapsucker Woods Pond.

“We’re seeing a trend of some woodpeckers extending their range further north,” Greig says. “Their presence is increasing.” She shows me records on her laptop indicating the birds’ northward advance.

Though Greig isn’t sure why their numbers in the area are growing (she speculates that climate change is a contributing factor), one thing is clear: there are a lot of woodpeckers in Upstate New York.

Birds of a feather Woodpeckers have captivated humans for centuries.

They play a prominent role in Native American creation myths. They make an appearance in Buddhist scriptures.

And they populate our favorite cartoons.

Woodpeckers are unique from other birds for a few reasons.

• X-shaped “zygodactyl” toe patterns enable them to grip bark with ease as they probe for insects.

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• Their firm tail feathers act as an “anchor” of sorts as they excavate tree cavities.

• Tufted feathers around the nostril prevent the inhalation of dust and debris.

• A skull comprised of thick, spongy bone cushions the brain.

• A “mismatched” beak structure allows for the transfer of energy away from the braincase.

• An elongated tongue (with a barbed tip) facilitates the extraction of insects from trees.

In addition to controlling insect populations, woodpeckers benefit the environment in other ways.

Woodpeckers are known as primary cavity-nesters, meaning they excavate their own nesting holes. Once they’ve died, migrated, or established new territories, these deserted sites serve as nesting areas for secondary cavitynesters. These are animals (such as the wood duck) that do not excavate their own holes, but rely on existing hollows for reproduction.

Another thing that distinguishes most woodpeckers from other birds is that they are non-migratory. The one exception in our region is the yellowbellied sapsucker. This, combined with their highly territorial nature, makes woodpeckers excellent candidates for year-round viewing. Once they’ve set up shop, they aren’t likely to move on. “They invest so much time in one area that they’re often a conspicuous presence,” Greig says.

My observations seem to confirm this. After exiting the Lab of Ornithology, I decide to take a walk along one of the paths winding through Sapsucker Woods. Near a junction in the trail I hear a dull thud like the sound of a hatchet on (Continued on page 70)

~ LifeintheFingerL akes.com

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LIFE IN THE FINGER LAKES FOUR SEASONS GARDEN • SONNENBERG CONSERVATORY • TOP TEN TROUT STREAMS MARCH/APRIL 2017 • VOL. 17, NO. 2

where always it’s Spring and everyone’s in love and flowers pick themselves – E. E. Cummings

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