Went birding today with my friends, Melissa Penta and Renee DePrato. We went up the east side of the lake and ran out of time so did not go down the west side.
We started at Hog Hole southwest Cayuga Lake to chase after one of my nemesis birds...the eared grebe. Thanks to Jay McGowan who updated me last night on the whereabouts of this bird. So... we get to Hog Hole at around 830 am and immediately we got on the EARED GREBE maybe 10 yards from the shore with a bunch of RUDDY DUCKS!! The bird was active at first and then settled down and slept in almost a football like shape but its awesome colorful eye was present. Of course, my batteries were dead in my camera!!! But Melissa and eventually Jay joined us and both were snapping away. Melissa got a good photo of the EARED GREBE check her blog site out here (scroll down to see the bird). http://mydigitalmind.com/blog/2013/02/eared-grebe-aythya-swan-sweep/ I am sure Jay got some good ones too. We watched this bird for quite some time. What a great bird. There was also a moderate size aythya raft with mostly REDHEADS, many SCAUP sp, mostly LESSER just behind the EARED GREBE. I got on two GREATER SCAUP that I was sure of. There were also several RING-NECKED DUCKS in this typical dense raft. We also had all the common gulls, 2 DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS, many COMMON GOLDENEYES, distant COMMON and HOODED MERGANSERS. >From East Shore Park, we looked and looked for any different gulls but only had the typical RING-BILLED, HERRING and GREATER BLACK BACKED GULLS. There were also lots and lots of COMMON and HOODED MERGANSERS, quite a few COMMON GOLDENEYES. Jay got on 4 fairly distant but clearly distinctive LONG-TAILED DUCKS here too. Myers point was windy, with waves and just normal gulls. We did see an aythya flock fly back toward Ladoga Park. So we went there and again met up with Jay and also Jeff Gerbracht. There were mainly MALLARDS and the usual large flock of AMERICAN COOTS that always seem to winter around here. The aythya flock apparently landed in... and just off... of the marina and was composed of REDHEADS, SCAUP sp, and few RING-NECKED DUCKS. No canvasbacks. Also present were GADWALL, MALLARDS Jeff got on a NORTHERN PINTAIL which I missed. Aurora Bay at the boathouse did not have any aythya sp but did have pretty much what we had already seen except there were BUFFLEHEADs here which we missed at the other locations. We did find another LONG-TAILED DUCK and a distant HORNED GREBE. There was a large aythya raft to the edge of the ice south of the Frontenac Marina in Union Springs. This raft was directly behind a bunch of homes with really no good place to stop to view. There was another fairly large aythya raft on the north side of Aurora, again, difficult to see given the homes and a fairly busy Rte 90. Plus it was starting to snow hard. Frustrating. Main point is that aythya rafts are building on the north end of the lake. Another great spot was near Mud Lock at the north edge of the ice. There were many swans up here. We actually had all 3 species. There were many TUNDRA SWANS on the ice and you could hear their higher pitched calls at the same time we had TRUMPETER SWANS close to the road not far from where the Eagle platform nest is. You could hear their deeper "trumpet-like" calls at the same time. In addition, the difference in the bills, forehead, and size were obvious when the two species where close together. Plus we had a surprise MUTE SWAN too!! There were also some aythya up here too including REDHEADS, SCAUP, RING-NECKED DUCKS. Again, no canvasback found anywhere today although we did not get to look at the two large aythya rafts to the south of here. Do the BALD EAGLES have a new nest site at the edge of the woods south of last year's platform nest? It sure looks like it. I bought batteries and got a few fair photos up at Mud Lock... see below. http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/sets/72157632680134889/ In all we totaled 46 species, and a lot of fun, despite the cold and snow. Dave Nicosia -- 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/ --
