Hi all,

Six hardy souls joined me on the trip around Cayuga Lake.

We started at Diary Bar, where we heard a Robin singing made us feel it is 
spring and warm. A Junco was also singing from the same location. We saw and 
heard a Killdeer circling above our head, while some of the Common Grackles 
were making their presence known.



We headed to Stewart Park as a couple of members mistakenly showed up at Lab of 
O, so we planned rendezvous at Stewart Park. We did see birds from here but 
they were half a mile away. So we decided to go East Shore Sailing Park.

>From here the view was much closer and ducks looked beautiful through the 
>scope, but as it happened we were showered with freezing rain while we were 
>here. But we did have some nice views of lots of Redheads, American Widgeons, 
>Ring-necked Ducks, Scaups, both Common and Hooded Mergansers, one Northern 
>Shoveller, three Green-winged Teals and two Goldeneyes. We also had a singing 
>Song sparrow here. Then someone thought they saw an Eurasian Widgeon, but it 
>turned out to be a false alarm. I did search for it but I did not see it 
>either. But we were satisfied with the great looks we had of all those ducks 
>so we decided to try Myers Marina.



Myers  marina was a bit of a disappointment as there were hardly any ducks in 
the marina. But out on the lake there were lots of Goldeneyes and other usual 
ducks and two Pied-billed Grebes.  From there we headed to Myers Point. Only 
birds of importance were two Long-tailed Ducks diving close to ice shelf close 
to shore. They were so very active, they spent just a few seconds on the 
surface and lots of time underwater. On the way to marina there were a couple 
of Turkeys in the field. Later near Jerry springer road we saw about 50 Turkeys 
and many of the males were displaying.



Then as my usual practice, I went to Center Road to look for larks and 
buntings. Except for two Horned Larks and a Redtail we did not see any birds.

Along Long Point State Park road we heard some chickadees, tufted titmouse and 
a Carolina Wren. From the shore we had some distant Red-breasted Mergansers and 
other usual birds.

At Union Spring pond we had two Horned Grebes and same usual ducks but in fewer 
numbers.



Harris's Park was excellent place to look at a few Red-breasted Mergansers, 
both males and females and lots of Canvasbacks! Previously in the morning we 
watched on male Canavasback dive along with dabblers and geese in a narrow 
patch of water at Stewart Park, he looked very odd among those groups. But I 
guess he was finding something, as he was actively diving to eat something 
juicy! At Harris's Park we also watched an adult eagle fly around several 
times. There is big nest on one of the electrical poles, we do not know whose 
nest it is. We will find out soon I guess.



We next stopped at the Mud lock where we saw a head in the eagle's nest, so 
that means they are still incubating or may be brooding the young! Chris 
pointed out to me a swallow trying to get something off of snow/ice patches. 
Then later we saw three Tree Swallows.



Further on we headed to Mucklands. Here it was fun as the sky was filled with 
birds. There was huge group of Snow geese trying to land and were not decided 
yet they wanted to land or not so they milled around a bit before landing. The 
sun was out at that time. So it was spectacular view! Some Tundra Swans were 
taking off and others landing. Canada Geese were milling around. Then there 
were thousands of Pintails everywhere. We also had a very good look at one of 
the Horned larks.



Then we headed to west side of the lake. We saw the same ducks, but much closer 
from the north end of the Lake Road.  Two Bald eagles that flew over Harris 
Park area made all the ducks take to flight and it was spectacular to see so 
many ducks in the air. Southern part of the Lake Road was still frozen so no 
birds were to be found. So we decided to take the inner route to look for snow 
geese and snow buntings.



We took Farron road, where we saw hundreds of Pintails in the snow melt puddles 
along with swans and geese. At some point there was huge pure flock of Pintails 
in the air.  We drove via Hoster Road and Kuneytown road but we did not find 
anything else of interest. At this point we had enough of ducks and geese so we 
decided to call it a day!

Overall it was very windy day, but we still enjoyed the birds with freezing 
hands and butts!



Cheers

Meena







Meena Haribal
Ithaca NY 14850

42.429007,-76.47111
http://haribal.org/
http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/



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