Hi all, Today was one of the best days of Derby Hill trips, in spite of cold.
On the way to Derby Hill we stopped at Subway where we heard a trill and I was so confident it was a junco. When we tracked down the bird it turned out to be Chipping Sparrow. I think because of the cold morning it was trilling much slower than the usual. Then the snipe point we had three Snipes, which gave us fleeting glimpses, but many of us could see their long bills so we were sure of their identity. A Swamp Sparrow trilled in the vicinity but we could not see him. At Derby Hill initially we spent time at bluff looking at the LTDs (Long-tailed Ducks), Red-breasted Mergansers, Horned Grebe, Loons, Caspian Terns and other common species. In the hedgerow at the top of the hill, we saw a few singing Ruby Crowned Kinglets and a Nashville Warbler. Also from the bluffs we saw two adult Bald Eagles and a couple of Sharp-shinned Hawks heading east. Then we headed to look for the hawks. First a Broad-winged Hawk passed by as Steve Kolbe called our attention to it. Soon we saw a kettle of Broad-wings rising up in the west. Then a few more and then several more kettles and more. They kept coming. In between there were some Golden Eagles, Ospreys, a couple of Northern Harriers, several more Bald Eagles and a few of Red-tailed flew past us. Of course there were several of Turkey Vultures passed by too. Non-hawks included some loons, heading straight north. By about 1.30 PM my group members thought they are frozen enough to do something else. So we were planning to decide which should be out next destination. On the way to the car Bernie Carr and Brian (from Paul Smith's group) convinced my group members that it was worth going to look for the Willow Ptarmigan an hour north of Derby Hill. This delighted me as I had never seen a Ptarmigan in my life and always wanted to see one. So we decided to head north. I had Kimberly Sucy's email of approximate location of the bird from the previous report. We punched in the address into our cell phone's GPS and headed north. It was beautiful along Rte 3 north. We took 180 N and then on to 12 E and county Rd 57 till S Shore Road. Finally, we went on to South Shore Extension road. There we found a couple of cars and Gerry Rising I believe. He told us to look on the shores and there it was a beautiful snow white bird, with black tail hiding among the branches and feeding. After sometime it became bold and started feeding in front of us. It quickly nibbled on the buds of the willow and to prove it was a Willow Ptarmigan. It fed greedily on the buds for all the time we were there, may be for about half an hour or more. We watched it through binoculars and camera and took lots of pictures. I will upload the pictures when I have time. In all we had a great time and great group and one of the best Derby Hill trips! Cheers Meena Meena Haribal Ithaca NY 14850 42.429007,-76.47111 http://haribal.org/ http://meenaharibal.blogspot.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/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/ --
