Saranac Lake, NY, Jan 15, 2013 — Record numbers of bird species were counted recently during the Christmas Bird Count in the Saranac Lake area. Larry Master, longtime birder and wildlife photographer, says the Saranac Lake count broke a 47-year-old record for the number of bird species seen and the number of birders counting in the field. Fifty species were seen by 46 birders in the field, also a record for Saranac Lake.

Larry Master has been counting birds all his life. He took over compiling the Saranac Lake results in 1974. He says there was exciting birding news in the first week of the new year when a Common Pochard, a European duck, was sighted among several other very rare ducks, like the Tufted Duck and Barrow's Goldeneye, that gather near the Champlain Bridge at Crown Point.