8th time's a charm! With a brief window in downtown Ithaca before an appointment, I decided to give a listen at the sycamores by the 3rd tee of Ithaca city golf course (Pier Rd). Arriving at 8:20, I immediately heard the double-noted song of a YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER out my car window -- it was among the loudest bird songs there and easily heard over the noisy grass-cutters and other truck noise in the area. I spotted the bird mid-height in the sycamore closest to Fall Creek, and then it flew up very high in the sycamores over the 3rd tee, continuing to sing.
While I was following the singing bird, I heard a loud chip closer by and was surprised to see a SECOND YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER foraging lower in the sycamore. I followed the second bird for awhile as the first bird sang -- it (she?) flew from cluster to cluster of newly opening sycamore leaves, working its way higher in the trees. Then, I briefly saw the singing bird fly to the second bird and they had a brief (seemingly nonagressive) interaction partially hidden from view -- this was possibly a brief copulation. The two birds then took off to the north, flying towards or over the fire-training building area. No more songs were heard in the 10 minutes I remained in the area. These birds behaved exactly as a breeding pair would be expected to behave, which is not that surprising given the longevity and irregular appearance of the singing male (probably using a larger home range), the perfectly suitable habitat, northward expansion of many species, and global warming in general. Others hopefully will be able to document and confirm this breeding activity in the coming weeks. KEN Ken Rosenberg Conservation Science Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 607-254-2412 607-342-4594 (cell) k...@cornell.edu -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
