Blog #257 Salt Point Birdability

Salt Point Natural Area showing the handicap accessible trail, courtesy of Sue Ruoff. 

The Salt Point Natural Area, on Cayuga Lake in Lansing, is now a registered Audubon  Birdability site, one of a growing number of accessible birding hotspots in the US. This new Audubon initiative strives to get mobility-impaired people out in the parks and natural areas to enjoy nature, by way of birding and, in turn, promote more accessible birding. Audubon’s Birdability Initiative is one of the only efforts of its kind in the nation.  Begun in Texas by avid birder Virginia Rose, who is wheel-chair bound, Audubon is now  compiling an official publication of Birdability sites in the nation.  

The Salt Point Natural Area is a perfect Birdability site and is rich in floodplain vegetation and wildlife with over 143 bird species as well as fox, beavers, deer, racoons, and an abundance of butterflies and fish. It is an official Monarch Waystation,  a viewable blue bird trail, and features an Osprey family at the western point of the  peninsula. 


The Little Free Library and bench (right) and Osprey platform ahead are just a few  destinations along the hard-packed trail at Salt Point, courtesy of Sue Ruoff. 

The SW view of Cayuga Lake and Myers’ Park from “Bill’s Bench,” courtesy of Sue Ruoff.

The natural area has designated handicap parking and a level, half-mile lakeside trail  encircling the point covered with hard-packed crushed stone negotiable by wheel chairs.  There is also an accessible side trail to the water and unobstructed views of scenic  Cayuga Lake. Other mowed trails weave through the wooded inner core. 

Lake views surround the Salt Point Natural Area. 

Located 12 miles from Ithaca (map below), the Salt Point Natural Area is a family  oriented natural area with something for everyone to enjoy from dawn until dusk. The  porta-potty, however, in not yet handicap accessible. 

Eyes to the sky! 

Candace 

Candace E. Cornell 

Friends of Salt Point 

Lansing, NY 

cec22@cornell.edu 

Read!  

On Osprey Time 

Ospreys of Salt Point

Watch!  

Salt Point Osprey Nest Cam  

Explore! 

Cayuga Lake Osprey Trail  

 


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