To help plan our trip around the forecast strong south winds with possible rain, I checked the satellite last night and found the entire national map aglow with migration - actually, starting south of the PA boundary - and by this morning it seemed that a new crew had arrived.
We started the day at Howland Island, greeted by at least a dozen golden-crowned kinglets, getting good close looks at brown creepers, and at one corner getting good comparative looks at four american tree sparrows with a song sparrow and a brightly ruddy swamp sparrow. There was a sharp-shinned hawk fly-by, and from the various ponds were flushed many wood ducks and american wigeons. I'm starting to think that for viewing of shyer species like wood ducks and hooded mergansers, you can't beat a place like Stewart Park where they're at least partially tolerant of human presence - in a "wild"-feeling place like Howland island, it was hard to get within binocular distance without triggering a reaction -- especially when you're in a group of 8. For the rest of the morning we were hard pressed to find any good birding spots that wasn't facing into the strong south wind - I think the south end of the lake was the place to be this morning. We drove across the new bridge at Carncross Road to the parking lot at the end where a large flock of red-winged blackbirds and grackles were foraging and flying about together - when they flew, I thought to detect one, perhaps two, female RWBBs. Back on "the mainland" we struggled to scope in the strong wind the few yellowlegs foraging in the muck - I heard at least one greater tew-tew-tew call, and was otherwise too teary-eyed to ID their greater/lesser-ness. Some distance away was a lone snow goose accompanying a flock of about 8 Canada geese, and when a juvenile bald eagle arrived they flushed and flew about for a good bit giving us good looks, then away downwind as the lone snow started to lag behind; moments later the snow goose returned alone to the original spot, its left wing with a few missing primaries noticeably less proficient in its flight. At the MAC Frank pointed out a great horned owl nest distantly visible from the center, and our group now combined with Meena's took a walk down to get a closer look at one parent with prominent "horns" and at least one white puffball next to it. For our final stop our group crossed to the marsh opposite the MAC to add a distant trumpeter swan to our list, and with the sun suddenly shining and the weather pleasant we decided to go through our checklists there, under the shadow of a new communication tower with an osprey nest atop. As we went through the list, an osprey caught a bright orange fish and flew about in a strange soap opera we couldn't understand - it hovered and whistled while a second osprey soared nearby, and the two slowly veered away; then the osprey with the gold fish landed on a snag right below the nest, and momentarily another osprey swooped by and shooed it away. We could never figure out how many ospreys were involved, which were the owners of the nest, which if any was an intruder... Suan _____________________ http://suan-yong.com -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
