In August of 1824, John James Audubon left New York City without finding a printer for his drawings for Birds of America. Rather than retrace the route he took from Pittsburgh to New York City via Philadelphia, Audubon headed north along the Hudson River and then west along the Mohawk River to reach Lake Erie before turning south to return to Louisiana. The path was “covered with heavy timber, principally evergreens, the pines, and the cucumber trees loaded with brilliant fruits, and the spruces throwing a shade over the land in good keeping for a mellow picture.”
Beyond the view and the roaring sound of the Cohoes Falls, Audubon continued following the Mohawk River and then the Erie Canal through the towns of Frankfort, Utica, Rome, Syracuse, and Rochester. The path allowed Audubon to observe American goldfinches like he never would again, “whenever a thistle was to be seen along either bank of the New York canal [Erie Canal], it was ornamented with one or more Goldfinches. They tear up the down and withered petals of the ripening flowers with ease, leaning downwards upon them, eat off the seed, and allow the down to float in the air. The remarkable plumage of the male, as well as its song, are at this season very agreeable; and so familiar are these birds, that they suffer you to approach within a few yards, before they leave the plant on which they are seated.”