I birded at East Shore Park on Saturday mid-day, and at Stewart Park this morning -- I must say that I have never seen so much hunting pressure at the south end of the lake. I want to say clearly that I am not against legal duck hunting in well managed areas (and I buy a Migratory Bird Stamp to support wetland conservation), but what is going on this year does not seem to be sustainable or an appropriate use of such a large public space. Boats with hunters and decoys were anchored right under the trees at the Swan Pen at Stewart Park, at the tip of the red lighthouse jetty, at the wooden buoy marker, on the beach at Hogs Hole, and along East Shore -- yesterday there was an additional boat cruising the center of the lake to chase duck flocks. Needless to say there was not a single spot for ducks to rest safely anywhere in the southern quarter-mile or so of Cayuga Lake (and probably north past Myer's Point as well), and any flock that circled around over the south end of the lake (no matter how high) was shot at. I don't know if DEC would consider that proper management of this important waterfowl wintering area. This seemed pretty different from the past few years when a few hunters kept the duck flocks moving around but there was plenty of place for them to rest -- notably along the Stewart Park shoreline, which was not available today.
This activity will undoubtedly affect the numbers of waterfowl on this year's Christmas Bird Count on Wednesday (wasn't much to count today). If this trend continues in future years, I strongly recommend that the Cayuga Bird Club move its count to the days prior to the late hunting season -- this slight straying from "tradition" will probably yield more accurate numbers of local waterfowl populations. In spite of the hunting, I did manage to see a few distant LONG-TAILED DUCKS and a single WHITE-WINGED SCOTER far to the north of East Shore Park, and a flock of 12 RUDDY DUCKS, along with HORNED and PIED-BIILED GREBES, COMMON LOON, and 3 DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS -- all decent CBC birds if they can hang in there. There were also TUNDRA SWANS around this morning -- 2 on the ice at Stewart Park east end when I arrived, and a flock of 40-50 in the center of the lake way out. Later in the morning, as I was scouting around the Farmers Market and Community Gardens, several small flocks of swans passed over Ithaca heading south. Yesterday, at Taughannock Falls State Park, there were 2 (MYRTLE) YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS with chickadees at the lakeshore near the south end of the park. Let's hope some birds survive the next deep freeze, KEN Ken Rosenberg Conservation Science Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 607-254-2412 607-342-4594 (cell) k...@cornell.edu<mailto: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/ --
