At Aurora Bay this morning, unfortunately the Redhead raft was NOT present, nor could I see any sign of it from Long Pt State Park looking south and across the lake. At Union Springs, the Factory Street pond hosted several Redhead and Gadwall pairs, as well as Mallards. The famous Screechie was soaking up the sun in the entrance of his box.
For you lake-ice-watchers, the ice has retreated to just south of Union Springs (several miles north of its level last Monday). From Union Springs I could see hundreds of Tundra Swans roosting on the southernmost ice, way out in the middle of the lake, possibly closer to the west shore. There were also scattered Tundra Swans along the east shore of the lake, notably visible from Lake Road. I have a question for the those who took part in the recent waterfowl count: has anyone estimated the size of the Aythya raft? Or was that not in the count area at the time? The latest number I see is from the Christmas Bird Count at 940 birds, but that was a while ago and there are more birds now. I am being asked on Facebook how many that raft contains. (If all else fails I guess I will have to count them in my photo!) Marie Marie Read Wildlife Photography 452 Ringwood Road Freeville NY 13068 USA Phone 607-539-6608 e-mail m...@cornell.edu http://www.marieread.com -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
