…and now the young Ravens have come out of the spruces and into the wider
world, taking flights of 100 yards or more.
> On May 15, 2024, at 7:41 AM, Geo Kloppel wrote:
>
> The remarkably noisy young Ravens in the spruces just across the road from
> my house have gotten out of the
The remarkably noisy young Ravens in the spruces just across the road from my
house have gotten out of their nest tree and are moving around quite a bit in
the plantation. I’m looking forward to hearing their raucous importunations
from greater and greater distances as they get their wings!
West Danby - still have a few Siskins coming to my nyjer feeder
-Geo
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For purely incidental (i.e. not experimental) reasons, one of the two identical
hummingbird feeders that I’m running side-by-side is loaded with the usual
colorless 1:4 solution of “pure cane sugar” (Domino), and the other is loaded
with a 1:4 solution of “certified organic pure cane sugar”,
Lots of welcome arrivals, including Great Crested Flycatcher today, but I’m
still feeding nyjer seed to a couple of Pine Siskins.
The Ravens at Taughannock Falls have four nestlings. They are quite late
compared to the big and noisy youngsters in my spruce plantation, seeming to
support the
When I arrived after 11 this morning the incubating Peregrine was casting her
eyes down upon her own breast, with her head cocked to one side as if
listening. Sure enough, when she stood up her first hatchling was revealed.
-Geo
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Being listed as endangered or threatened isn’t really the criterion for legal
protection. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) already protects these birds
and their nests, eggs, and nestlings.
-Geo
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The Peregrines’ nest is just below the Visitor’s Center building at the falls overlook, so not likely to be lighted directly, unless the technicians are planning something really extravagant! The Ravens' nest is above and slightly north of the lip of the falls itself. It's well within the reach
the reaction of the incubating females.-GeoOn Apr 14, 2024, at 1:16 PM, Deb Grantham wrote:
So what do we do?
Deb
From: bounce-128145578-83565...@list.cornell.edu
On Behalf Of Geo Kloppel
Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2024 12:07 PM
To: CAYUGABIRDS-L
Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Taughannock Falls
Below is the press release for the evening light shows at the great falls in Taughannock Falls State Park later this week, which have potential to disturb the Peregrine Falcons and Ravens that are currently on nests there).Note that the event is jointly hosted by NYS Parks, Visit Ithaca, and also
Yes, a few reports of LA Waterthrush around Ithaca and elsewhere in the FingerlakesOn Apr 12, 2024, at 7:13 PM, Peter Saracino wrote:Thanks Geo.Are any Louisiana waterthrush back?SarOn Fri, Apr 12, 2024, 5:35 PM Geo Kloppel <geoklop...@gmail.com> wrote:The Taughannock gorge Peregrines shou
The Taughannock gorge Peregrines should see their eggs hatching soon. She has
been lying on her nest ledge since March 14th. She has four brown eggs beneath
her. He has been making food deliveries… twice while I watched today. Those are
very excited, talkative events, though I guess all the
> Ithaca, New York (where the skies are very rarely clear during celestial
> events.)
The evening _before_ the eclipse the skies were quite clear. I went up to the
top of my hill in West Danby with a couple of my neighbors, and we enjoyed
viewing Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks through binoculars and
In addition to their familiar trills, delivered all at one pace and pitch,
Dark-eyed Juncos do have a two part song that can suggest Song Sparrow. You can
find examples in some of the field guide apps.
-Geo
> On Apr 1, 2024, at 5:30 PM, Laura Stenzler wrote:
>
> Pretty sure it’s a junco.
The Ravens are nesting again in the same location as last year, a ledge on the
north wall close to and higher than the great falls, easily viewed from a
nearby lookout on the South Rim trail.
-Geo
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A pair of Northern Harriers was keeping close company at the traditional nest
site in Michigan Hollow this morning. Observing from a considerable distance, I
watched the male drop into the sedges in the area of previous years’ nest(s).
He immediately took flight again, and moments later the
A couple of Pine Siskins have joined the Goldfinches at my feeders this
morning. Encouraged, I’ve put out a second Nyjer feeder.
-Geo
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Two Fox Sparrows are rummaging under my feeders at the moment. We’re expecting
4” of “Wintry Mix” here in West Danby.
-Geo
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My count was 26 Cranes at the MNWR visitors’ center yesterday about 3:00 PM.
Mostly standing around, or strutting a bit, lightly tooting their horns. Made
me think of a brass band just gathering in the assembly area before the start
of a parade. Indeed at 3:15 they all went walking north
>From the sound of things, the Tupper Rd Ravens are nest-building in my spruce
>plantation again. Kevin, Jay and Anne may remember this location as the first
>stop in a day of Raven-banding on the 30th of April, 2003. (No, I don’t
>actually have elephant memory, but I do have the photos that
…and still at it an hour later. Pretty determined!
My neighbor throws two quarts of bird seed on the ground every day, which must
be a real boon for voles and deer mice. Maybe that is what’s keeping the
Saw-whets around…
Les campagnols et les souris sylvestres
S’occupent de ses affaires
Started tooting at 6:20 PM. Today I put up a nest box, and I will do another
one tomorrow.
-Geo
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5:30 AM: still tooting, 25 days now
-Geo
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21 days here!
-Geo
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The number of Purple Finches at my feeders has jumped quite suddenly from ten
to about thirty.
-Geo
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Black oil sunflower seed in the big hopper, sure, but I offer Nyjer all by
itself in a dedicated finch feeder, and the Goldfinches are very happy with
that. I buy 5# bags at Agway; Lizzie Mae’s Birdseed and Dry Goods Company. The
bags are zip-lock, but I transfer the Nyjer to 1-qt plastic jugs
Their home range must be at least a few square miles, so the otters at
Jennings Pond may be the same ones that hang out in the big Michigan Hollow
sedge marsh, about a mile south of the pond.
Incidentally, beaver have recently repaired the old dam that controls the
mile-long marsh, and the
I know quite a few humans who do what strikes me as much the same kind of
thing: their dining tables and kitchen windowsills are decorated with trinkets
and natural objects like polished stones, pine cones, crystals, snake skins,
and dried flowers. On mine there are currently several bits of
Given the open streams and the forecast, the Great Blue Heron I‘m looking at
just now is not going to be needed as a “count week” addition. Confluence of
Buttermilk Creek and Cayuga Inlet.
-Geo
> On Dec 29, 2023, at 6:12 PM, Kevin J. McGowan wrote:
>
> It’s actually frustrating to see
Driving in my West Danby / Newfield neighborhood a few days ago, I turned east
from Vanbuskirk Road onto Bower Road, and came upon a second year Bald Eagle
standing on a fox in the middle of the road. Although one sees a lot of
road-killed foxes, the tableau strongly suggested that the Eagle
The nest site is not giving off any noticeable odor now. Hal Harrison wrote
that careful concealment of the nest from predators was imperative, because of
the strong odor that results from feeding carrion to the young. Perhaps
“careful concealment” includes eating and defecating off-site
Thanks Donna, that gives me a lot to look forward to! I had undertaken a bit of
slow, desultory salvage work at the abandoned shack in the woods, but after
discovering the Turkey Vulture scraping in the debris on the floor there on
April 29-30, I avoided the place for weeks. It does seem like a
In late April I found a Turkey Vulture scraping around in the domestic debris
on the floor of one of our abandoned shacks deep in the woods. I coded it as NB
(nest building).
Over the next few weeks I observed several comings and goings that I
interpreted hopefully as shift-changes. She’s
… also Veery, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler
-Geo
> On May 7, 2023, at 8:40 AM, Geo Kloppel wrote:
>
> …Baltimore Oriole, Black-throated Green Warbler, Nashville Warbler,
> Black-and-white Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Chestnut sided Warbler
>
> -Geo
>
…Baltimore Oriole, Black-throated Green Warbler, Nashville Warbler,
Black-and-white Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Chestnut sided Warbler
-Geo
> On May 7, 2023, at 8:15 AM, Laura Stenzler wrote:
>
> FOY Red-eyed vireo and scarlet tanager added to yard list!
>
> Laura
>
> Laura Stenzler
>
Yup, lots around my place in West Danby too: Indigo Bunting, Scarlet Tanager,
Warbling Vireo, American Redstart, Gray Catbird, Wood Thrush, Rose-breasted
Grosbeak, Ovenbird, Canada Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, Blue-headed Vireo…
-Geo
> On May 7, 2023, at 7:15 AM, Laura Stenzler wrote:
>
A Ruby-throated Hummingbird visited my feeder earlier this evening, and just
now the big brown bats have emerged from my roof.
-Geo
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I’d guess the chicks are going on two weeks old, so four more weeks to go on
the ledge…?
Mom is on her favorite perch about twenty feet away, waiting for a food
delivery. Oh, here comes dad…
-Geo
> On May 4, 2023, at 5:41 AM, Dave Nutter wrote:
> Yesterday afternoon (3 May) about 5:15pm,
The little Peregrine chicks are fine - their dense down is just the same color
as the splattered ledge, so if they’re sleeping in a pile you might miss them.
The adults are around too.
-Geo
> On May 4, 2023, at 5:41 AM, Dave Nutter wrote:
>
> Yesterday afternoon (3 May) about 5:15pm, Ann
Yesterday noon my feeders were briefly mobbed by about 15 Blue Jays, which I
took to be migrants, as the local Jays are already carrying nest material.
-Geo
> On Apr 28, 2023, at 2:38 PM, Dave Nutter wrote:
>
> Yesterday in the late afternoon I saw a small quiet flock of 8 Blue Jays
>
Late this afternoon I watched the Taughannock Peregrine female take delivery of
an unrecognizable catch from the male, fly to the nest with it, then tear it up
to carefully and patiently feed her four little eyases (nestlings).
The Raven female above the great falls was also feeding her three
I took my dog for a long walk at Taughannock, then did some shopping at the
T-burg Shur-Save. On my way out I stopped to take some digi-scope photos of the
Peregrine nest from the opposite rim of the gorge. Looks like incubation is
underway.
-Geo
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Over the years, many people have told me that they do not see this predation by
Crows at their own favorite toad ponds, which leads me to imagine that the
technique for extracting the goods without the poisonous bufotoxin is a kind of
traditional knowledge passed down the generations in certain
Last October there was an article in the Bangor Daily News titled “Plague Of
Chickadees In Acadia Could Mean A Frigid Winter In Maine” (Paywall). Seems
unlikely that the Chickadees were just anticipating cold weather. Perhaps a
poor year for some food resource that’s important to Chickadees
Speaking of migrations, the toads’ annual pool party at my pond in West Danby
is in full swing, a good 2 - 3 weeks ahead of schedule. (Over the past 14 years
I’ve come to expect their gathering to occur in the very last days of April /
the first week of May)
For years the local Crows harvested
This 2005 Chickadee Irruption post from our old friend Jeff Wells is also fun:
https://www.borealbirds.org/blog/2005/09/30/chickadee-irruption
-Geo
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Nice, Dave!
“Irruption” seems to be the preferred term for these mass movements of young
Chickadees. Andrea Patterson posted the following piece on April 18, 2013,
about observations of the phenomenon over a number years at Braddock Bay Bird
Observatory, where Lake Ontario poses the barrier
Two Broad-winged Hawks are soaring low over my West Danby hillside in the
mid-day sunshine. The Ravens, who have gone quiet and seem to have nestlings
now, are not pleased with these new arrivals, and one of them is attempting to
drive the hawks away. He has the size advantage, and he’s very
Make sure to keep it cool and dry after you buy it too, so it doesn’t get “old”
prematurely in your own cupboard. I like to transfer the contents of a
newly-opened bag into a jug with an air-tight screw cap.
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A bit chilly above West Danby this morning (34° F), but when the sun rose over
the distant pinnacles and lit our spruce plantation, the female Cooper’s Hawk
began calling from within: “whaaa… whaaa…. whaaa”. The Crows must have been
aware, but they ignored it. She went on giving these tripled
My guess (nothing more) is that this may be the same Snow Goose that was
walking about on the grass at Taughannock Point on the afternoon of March 16th.
That goose was pretty clearly unwilling to fly - it held one wing slightly
raised as if injured, and when it became wary of the attention it
For a third time this month I really enjoyed the new deck on Bernie’s Bridge,
which no longer threatens to tilt users into the creek at the north end of the
Montour Falls Marina. (Last week I sent a note of thanks to the mayor for his
part in the repairs.) Later this afternoon, and a bit
I saw a pair of Red-tailed Hawks at the corner of Agard Road and Willow Creek
Road at 12:30. One was carrying nest material (grape vines I think), and flew
south along the road several hundred yards before turning east toward the Black
Diamond Trail.
-Geo
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One of my local Ravens just flew by at window height carrying a rigid object,
which (at a guess) looked about eight inches long. I figured the pair had eggs
by now, so perhaps it was a food delivery for the incubating female - something
with a bone still in it?
-Geo
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There was deep slush everywhere at my house yesterday, and it was hard work for
my elderly dog to struggle through, so I took her for a long leisurely walk at
Taughannock Point.
There was a Snow Goose at the north point that had an injured wing. It paddled
north toward Frontenac, forestalling
Hi Sandy,
There are some big rafts of Snow Geese in Aurora Bay, SE of Dean’s Cove. Can’t
see any at Cayuga Lake State Park where I’m now walking with my dog…
-Geo
> On Mar 3, 2023, at 11:12 AM, Sandy Podulka wrote:
>
> Anyone been to the Savannah Mucklands or by Cayuga Lake State Park the
Hi Deb,
The Blue Jay is a “partially migratory” species. If you google “blue jay
migration” you’ll get lots of hits that attempt in a few words (or a few
paragraphs) to explain what this means. The persons who asked you to find out
why they aren’t seeing Blue Jays this winter might get
Hi Laurie and all,
I usually have a few Purple Finches at my winter feeders. About six lately. But
my brother in Interlaken gets the congener House Finches instead. Guess it just
depends on where you are situated!
-Geo
> On Feb 26, 2023, at 1:42 PM, Laurie Rubin wrote:
>
> Two female
I had to pick up my daughter at the Ithaca Airport last night, so I went early
(5:30) to see the Short-eared Owls. From Snyder Road near the western corner of
the solar farm, I watched one in flight for several minutes. The snow was
flying too, and when the light dimmed, I walked SE along the
I spite of the low cloud ceiling, numerous flights of Snow Geese and Canada
Geese are entering the Cayuga Basin at West Danby this afternoon, and passing
northward down the Cayuga Inlet valley
-Geo
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>From Long Point State Park last Thursday afternoon I saw a distant raft of
>Snow Geese near Dean’s Cove on the west shore. The distance and low viewing
>angle made it look like just a line, but when all the geese re-shuffled in
>their typical rolling-snowsquall manner it was clear that there
A small flock of 10-12 Grackles went over my house at dawn, headed north.
Yesterday I had an Eastern Bluebird feeding on the grassy bank below my house.
This morning I‘m hearing their “turalee” calls as they pass overhead, and even
full songs from several scouts checking out the nest boxes.
Last night I went to bed with a sore throat. It woke me up at 3:00, so I got up
to make a soothing hot drink. That was lucky, as it turned out. A little later,
and a little colder, I was writing this:
3:45 AM 13°F The moon has gone behind the hill. There are some light clouds,
but the region
Just received the Murray McMurray Hatchery catalog. This discussion prompted me
to look there and elsewhere for the availability of Red Crested Pochard
Hatchlings. Turns out they are offered by lots of hatcheries, though at $150 -
$300 per pair, they’re aimed at bird fanciers rather than common
the NYS DEC Waterfowl Bag Limits, it says no
>> Harlequin ducks. This is in the paragraph below the waterfowl chart
>>
>>> On Mon, Dec 12, 2022, 7:29 AM Geo Kloppel wrote:
>>> I imagine the legal status of eastern Harlequin Ducks is regularly
>>> mention
I imagine the legal status of eastern Harlequin Ducks is regularly mentioned in
hunter education courses run by the wildlife management agencies in the various
states and provinces. In 1990 the Committee on the Status of Endangered
Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) listed the entire eastern
A flock of about a dozen White-throated Sparrows has been working my yard and
neighborhood lately; seen as recently as this morning. No Tree Sparrows here,
but several Purple Finches and Red-breasted Nuthatches appear at the feeders
each day. Pileated Woodpeckers are tearing great strips of
At 6:26 am I heard a group of Tundra Swans passing over West Danby on their way
south out of the Cayuga Basin.
-Geo
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At one point late this morning the Harlequin Duck moved well south of the
sailing center and all the associated buoys, into the bay at the SE corner of
the lake, still associating with Mallards and Bufflehead in shallow water. The
view from Stewart Park or the RR tracks behind the Ithaca
Downy Woodpeckers may drill cavities in the late fall to use for winter
roosting. If that’s what you’re experiencing, you might try offering them some
bird houses as alternatives…
-Geo
> On Dec 4, 2022, at 6:30 PM, Christopher Sperry wrote:
>
>
> We do not see any indication of insects
NW to NNW winds are forecast for the morning of Tuesday the 29th, but the
predicted velocity is quite low; don’t know if that will make for much of a
loon flight…
-Geo
> On Nov 23, 2022, at 4:56 PM, John Gregoire
> wrote:
>
>
> I've been to check on Loons over Seneca Lake three times so
For night listening, my old iPhone outside the bedroom window does a good job,
as it’s quite sensitive (after all, this is the mic that Merlin uses). Last
night it treated me to crickets, a Barred Owl, and a coyote chorus. Feed the
output to a second device running Merlin and detect the night
Hi Karen,
You can spend a lot for a high quality ambient microphone - from a few hundred
to a few thousand dollars. But if you have an old Android or iPhone that’s just
gathering dust, you could be listening tonight, while you research products and
ideas. Just put the phone outdoors on a
If squirrels don’t have easy access to your roof, you might try what has worked
well at my house for many years: the hummingbird feeders are suspended from the
eaves troughs on long hangers of the type used for flower baskets.
-Geo
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I’ve got a Catbird in the yard who does imitations of Bobwhite and
Whip-poor-will :-)
-Geo
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I have an Olive-sided Flycatcher singing and hunting from the top of a snag at
my pond this morning.
-Geo
Geo Kloppel, West Danby
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A Black-billed Cuckoo was singing cu-cu-cu-cu over and over again in the trees
just north of my garden this afternoon (Tupper Rd, West Danby). Not a harbinger
of rain on this occasion, alas! But still welcome: I’m just starting to see
tiny caterpillars, so I hope there will be plenty of
If you thought mid-March was late, here it is the evening of March 31st, the
final hours of the month, and the Ravens on Sorry Hunter Hill* are still
carrying sticks (not lining material) and croaking excitedly.
-Geo
*1,920’ summit west of Tupper Rd, West Danby
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This morning I went over to the beaver dam that controls the water level in the
big Michigan Hollow sedge marsh north of Diane’s Crossing (Finger Lakes Trail).
As some readers will know, the lodge became unoccupied more than a year ago,
and without maintenance the dam has deteriorated. The
Nice warm-up around West Danby today. So much snow has melted up here on the
hill that a Fox Sparrow found some bare ground to rake at the edge of my yard.
This evening one of my house’s resident big brown bats is out flying about, and
catching insects too, to judge by the type of flying I‘m
My (mostly sunflower) feeding operation at home (West Danby) has attracted
about 20 Purple Finches daily for the last week or so, along with a similar
number of White-throated Sparrows, and the usual Goldfinches, Chickadees,
Tufted Titmice, White and Red-breasted Nuthatches, Carolina Wrens,
I’m not advocating, but one can buy grass-fed organically produced beef suet
through the mail. One source that I see online sells it for about $7 / lb.,
which is not more than one might pay for certain brands of organic peanut
butter (which are typically non-hydrogenated, so no need to wonder
No loons to be seen over West Danby yesterday morning, because of the
persistently falling snow. A brief but particularly heavy squall swept through
between 8:00 and 8:30. Right in the thick of it, riding a tail wind out of the
north, came a flight of Tundra Swans. I was indoors, but ran
> On Sep 26, 2021, at 9:20 PM, anneb.cl...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Summer isn’t over til the last fledgling flies???
> Anne
I guess it’s not over, then. A just-fledged Mourning Dove popped up in my
driveway this morning. Although these can appear in any season, this one was
under incubation
Wood Stork continued today (Knox Marcellus), as did the Roseate Spoonbill (west
of the rte 89 bridge at May’s Point). A pair of Trumpeter Swans with two
cygnets rested in Guy’s Marsh mid-afternoon.
-Geo
> On Jul 21, 2021, at 7:08 AM, Jay McGowan wrote:
>
>
> The immature WOOD STORK found
Yeah, gypsy moth caterpillars stripped the slopes around West Danby pretty
bare. New leaves are popping now, but I guess any effect the defoliation may
have had on this year’s breeding is a done deal.
Still, this has happened before. Whatever the effect, I’m counting on the
resilience of West
ew nesting areas it
> took for the one farm as described.
>
> No not impossible but much harder than it seems. And leaving clumps with
> nests as well as paths near them will increase predation.
>
> I am dubious as good as this sounds.
>
> Anne
>
> Sent from
I’ve been musing along a different line, wondering if a preemptive approach is
possible.
It takes time to mow the big fields that grassland nesters favor, and the hay
farmer can’t mow all of them simultaneously. The work of haying season has to
begin somewhere, and start early enough that the
I was about to say that anyone who wants to discuss the matter cogently with
actual farmers and hayfield managers would do well to consult the Resources
page on the Cayuga Bird Club website, where this link lives:
Cornell Cooperative Extension has published a very helpful document on Hayfield
I had a Mourning Warbler singing in my yard this AM. Both Black-billed and
Yellow-billed Cuckoos. And our perennial Barred Owls. I actually had a
face-to-face with one of them a couple days ago, down in the hemlock-shaded
ravine.
Elsewhere around my local haunts I had two grunting Virginia
I’m outside my house watching a couple of big brown bats this evening, and
suddenly a Whip-poor -will has started singing! First time here since the late
‘90s. Still going!
-Geo
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Despite the predation by Crows, who hunted them in the tall grass at the
water’s edge, lots of toads succeeded in leaving long strings of eggs in my
pond, and today the jellied strings have opened to release tiny, tiny tadpoles.
Even tinier (3mm long) are the just-hatched forest caterpillars
The toads’ annual breeding party has been running for days (and nights!) at my
pond, and as usual the hapless toads are easy prey for a family of Crows that
has a long tradition of exploiting this event. This year’s hunters have revised
the time-honored practice of gutting the toads right on
Six Evening Grosbeaks just arrived at my feeders. Or I should say, they’re
watching the activity at my feeders from the adjacent trees, talking it over...
ah, here we go: they’re moving in!
-Geo
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A hidden Virginia Rail gave me a grunt display at ridiculously close range
(10’?) this morning in Michigan Hollow marsh, Danby (not to be confused with
the North Spencer Marsh near the south end of Michigan Hollow Road, where BTW
the bridge is closed).
-Geo
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What food was being offered to attract the Crows ?
-Geo
Sent from my iPhone
> On Apr 22, 2021, at 2:22 PM, Kevin J. McGowan wrote:
>
>
> Crows would not tolerate an eagle unless it was very focused on eating
> something else. Vulture sounds most likely.
>
> Kevin
>
>
>
> From:
I have a bog metal hopper-type feeder with spring-loaded perching bars, and the
spring tension is adjustable. At any particular setting, birds over a certain
weight will depress the bars, which closes off the seed ports. During Blue Jay
migration, for example, the spring loading can be adjusted
Yep. After walking thru some thickets in Michigan Hollow yesterday, I got
test-bitten in two places by a tick, and then found the presumed explorer
crawling on my forehead.
-Geo
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Fox Sparrows are singing all around my place this morning. There are 4 Wood
Ducks on the pond, several pairs of Phoebes hanging around the sheds, lots of
Juncos, no more Redpolls. Turkeys are gobbling, Ruffed Grouse are drumming.
-Geo
Tupper Road, West Danby
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Cayugabirds-L List Info:
West Danby: Around 1:00 pm I saw a number of flocks of Snow Geese just
entering the Cayuga Basin from the south. Not sure how extensive the flight
was, but that mid-day timing always suggests a dawn origin in the coastal
regions to our south. So, not entirely over yet!
-Geo
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