I led a group of four on a Cayuga Bird Club field trip today: Caroline,
Judy, Lee-Ann and Becky. Given the very strong South winds, I was
hopeful that something interesting had arrived, but no luck. The
starlings in the trees teased us with their imitations of Meadowlarks,
Towhees and Red-tailed Hawks, but there were few real birds of interest
among those trees other than an Eastern Phoebe. Looking out on the lake
we saw the usual three gulls, Mallards, Common Mergansers, Bufflehead,
Canada Geese, and a single Common Loon. To the East were flocks of
Coots, Scaup (both), three Ruddy Ducks. If there had been Shovelers and
Lesser Black-backed Gulls around then, I think we would have found them,
so they must have arrived later. An adult Bald Eagle flew over as we
were scoping, a female Belted Kingfisher strafed the surface, and a few
Tree Swallows flew around the mouth of the inlet. Further in the inlet
were Wood Ducks, more Bufflehead, more Common Mergansers, several Hooded
Mergansers, and a Pied-billed Grebe.
We then headed into Renwick in the hope of finding the Great-horned Owl.
No luck. There were many more Wood Ducks though, at one point a flock of
about eight males flew over above the treetops. We found a female
perched high in a tree.
The possibility of Bohemian Waxwings was too good to pass up, so we then
headed to Drake Road. No luck on those, but we did add a few more
species: Red-bellied Woodpecker, and Flicker.
We then stopped at Myers, and picked up three Killdeer, a small flock of
Redhead and another Common Loon.
Finally we went to Sapsucker Woods, starting with the field beyond the
far parking lot. There we found about half a dozen Golden-crowned
Kinglets that were very cooperative. A single American Tree Sparrow was
mixing with the Song Sparrows. We then walked along the first stretch of
the Wilson Trail hoping to find a Fox Sparrow or two. No luck there
either, but we did find a couple of White-throated Sparrows.
Despite missing our target species and that fierce wind, it was still a
great day to be out.
Paul
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Paul Anderson, VP of Engineering, GrammaTech, Inc.
531 Esty St., Ithaca, NY 14850
Tel: +1 607 273-7340 x118; http://www.grammatech.com
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