Hi all, Ton and I spent a wonderful day today birding around the Cayuga Lake Basin. We started around our property on Hunt Hill Rd. east of Ithaca. The first thing we noticed were three Hooded Mergansers on our pond – two first spring males (black bills, light eyes) and one adult female. They were accompanied by a Mallard. Other birds included Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets, Field Sparrow, Louisiana Waterthrush, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Purple Finches, Pileated and Hairy Woodpecker, Flicker and many Juncos, among others for a total of 27 species by the time we left at 9 am.
We headed up the east side of Cayuga Lake, first stopping at Sapsucker Woods to hear Northern Waterthrush calling. A quick stop at Mud Lock to look at the Bald Eagle on its nest was followed by a trip along the Wildlife Drive at Montezuma. Purple Martins, Yellow Warbler, Swamp Sparrows, Ruddy Ducks, Northern Harrier, 4 Dunlin and 1 Semi-palmated Plover at the new shorebird area, plus many other ducks (see list below). Mays Point Pool had many RUDDY DUCKS in beautiful breeding plumage, as well as Ring-necked and Red-head Ducks (and many others). >From there we headed further north to Railroad Rd., which was quiet except for >one COMMON MOORHEN. Next was Morgan Rd. for Wood Ducks, then Carncross Rd., >where we saw about 100 Greater Yellowlegs, with Lesser Yellowlegs mixed in, as >well as many, many Green-winged Teal and Pintails and two sleeping CASPIAN >TERNS. We spent quite a bit of time there, taking photos of the Yellowlegs. A >quick hop over to Marten’s Track allowed us to get a look at one SANDHILL >CRANE as it flew over, toward Carncross. The pond at Marten’s was full of >Wigeon. Next, we headed over to the Seneca County Fairgrounds were we easily found (from the road) 4 UPLAND SANDPIPERS, at least 3 Meadowlarks, and numerous Savannah sparrows. It was a very satisfying stop! We backtracked a bit to Cayuga Lake State Park where we picked up Lesser Scaup and Common Loon. We headed south on the west side of the lake to Sheldrake. By then, the lake was as calm as can be and we came across a group of 3 placidly swimming Common Loons – two in breeding plumage. We saw an additional 3 or 4 loons along Sheldrake, and hear several calling. We made the required stop at the Creamery before heading home. This was just a sampling of our day. The complete list is below. We managed to avoid most of the rain and saw 86 species of birds! A great day! I’ve added our observations to eBird, trying to submit them by location, which is not so easy when one has stopped at many places. It makes for a long posting (below), and I'm not sure I listed everything. Oh well. Please forgive typos and any obvious mistakes ! Location: Hunt Hill Rd. Total: 27 species Mallard 1 Hooded Merganser 3 Wild Turkey 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Hairy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 1 Pileated Woodpecker 1 Eastern Phoebe 1 American Crow 2 Tree Swallow 1 Black-capped Chickadee 4 Tufted Titmouse 2 Golden-crowned Kinglet 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2 American Robin 4 European Starling 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 Louisiana Waterthrush 1 Chipping Sparrow 1 Field Sparrow 1 Song Sparrow 2 White-throated Sparrow 2 Dark-eyed Junco 14 Red-winged Blackbird 1 Common Grackle 1 Purple Finch 4 American Goldfinch 4 Location: Sapsucker Woods, CLO Northern Waterthrush 1 Location: Montezuma NWR--Main Pool AND Visitor’s Center Canada Goose X Gadwall X American Wigeon X Mallard X Blue-winged Teal X Northern Shoveler X Green-winged Teal X Redhead X Ring-necked Duck X Common Merganser X Ruddy Duck X Pied-billed Grebe X Great Blue Heron X Osprey X Bald Eagle X Northern Harrier 2 Killdeer 2 Dunlin 4 Semi-palmated Plover 1 Yellow Warbler 1 Song Sparrow X Swamp Sparrow X Purple Martin 6 Location: Montezuma NWR--Tschache Pool Canada Goose X Gadwall X Common Merganser X Double-crested Cormorant X Great Blue Heron X Bald Eagle X Ring-billed Gull X Great Black-backed Gull X Purple Martin X Tree Swallow X Barn Swallow X Yellow Warbler X Yellow-rumped Warbler X Brown-headed Cowbird X Location: N. Montezuma WMA--Railroad Rd. Mallard X Northern Shoveler X Osprey X Common Moorhen 1 Location: Savannah Spring Lake Rd--Carncross to Martens Tract Trumpeter/Tundra Swan 10 Northern Pintail X Green-winged Teal X American Wigeon X Great Blue Heron X Wood Duck 2 Turkey Vulture X Sandhill Crane 1 Greater Yellowlegs X Lesser Yellowlegs X Ring-billed Gull X Caspian Tern 2 American Crow X Tree Swallow X Eastern Bluebird 2 Song Sparrow X Swamp Sparrow X Red-winged Blackbird X Location: Seneca Falls Fairgrounds, Martin Rd. Upland Sandpiper 4 Savannah Sparrow 3 Eastern Meadowlark 4 Other species not listed above: Carolina Wren Common Loon Blue Jay Kingfisher Rock Dove House Sparrow Cardinal Lesser Scaup Laura Stenzler l...@cornell.edu -- 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/ --
