It was indeed a beautiful winter day to be out birding. I spent from about 8:30 till 3 pm driving around the Canoga Springs area, scanning from many spots and running into lots of other birders, who as far as I know all came up Gyr-less. Besides the aforementioned SNOWY OWL and SHRIKE, I had a single flyover LAPLAND LONGSPUR along Canoga Rd, and then found a large manure spread on 96 north of Yellow Tavern Rd with hundreds of HORNED LARKS and SNOW BUNTINGS- my Longspur was likely among them but I couldn't find any.
I also spent about an hour scanning the Seneca Landfill from 414 and North Rd, and although no gulls seemed to be on the landfill, there were at times hundreds of gulls on the air against the deep blue sky- I picked out an immaculate white 2nd cycle GLAUCOUS GULL and at least 3 ICELAND GULLS. Lots of falcon. Sit but no takers. Early in the morning the lake looked almost completely frozen over from the west side, with a thin glaze of new ice and steam rising even off Deans Cove and the Varick shoreline. By mid afternoon many of these areas had opened up. I hope the Tufted Duck is as easy tomorrow..... Ken Sent from my iPhone On Feb 28, 2015, at 8:09 PM, "david nicosia" <daven1...@yahoo.com<mailto:daven1...@yahoo.com>> wrote: With High Pressure overhead today I knew the wind would be light so despite the cold I decided to bird all day beginning in sub-zero air. My car thermometer dropped to minus 21F between Berkshire and Richford on Rte 38 on the way up. Most of Rte 38 to Dryden was close to minus 20!! First stop was Ladoga Point and I couldn't believe all the ice cover!! There was one small patch of ice free water and it was full of mainly aythya sp. with some COMMON MERGANSERS and MALLARDS too. The birds were tightly packed and after watching for about 20-25 minutes I got on a sleeping TUFTED DUCK. The contrasting bright white and very dark back was very apparent. The bird easily stood out in the steamy air among the many REDHEADS, and SCAUP SP. There were several GREATER SCAUP around for comparison. This is the same bird Jay had...I assume. There were also CANVASBACKS, and RING-NECKED DUCKS too. Myer's Point Marina has some close-up waterfowl with great lighting for photos. Myer's Point was partially open and loaded with mainly aythya sp. COMMON GOLDENEYES, COMMON MERGANSERS with few RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS, LONG-TAILED DUCKS. I didn't find any grebes anywhere today! The ducks were flying back and forth at times between Salt Point and Myers. I would check this area given the shear number of waterfowl tomorrow. It was still sub-zero at Myer's and the cold finally got to me that I decided to head north and I successfully found the female BARROW'S GOLDENEYE at Phoenix Lock and Dam north of Syracuse. The bird had a yellow bill and very steep forehead. Nice comparison with the many female common goldeneyes around. Next stop was with many other birders... Canoga road, Seybolt and Stahl roads in search of the elusive gyrfalcon which eluded me too. I did find Mike Tetlow's SNOWY OWLS. One was exactly were Ken Rosenberg had it this morning in a snowy field just to the west of the intersection of Yellow Tavern Road and Route 96a. Then on Conoga Road before you reach 414 heading east I saw another SNOWY OWL in flight!!! This one was very white. Then back on Seybolt Road there was a NORTHERN SHRIKE that was being enjoyed by a large group of birders. I came back down the east side of Cayuga Lake and was amazed at how much ice there was. The only decent open ice free area I found was between Long Point st and Aurora bay and this place was loaded with mainly aythya sp and goldeneyes. Lighting was poor this afternoon so I would check this too in the morning if anyone is out tomorrow. All in all, a great day. I also noticed many geese flying high...NORTH!!! A sign of spring.... Dave Nicosia -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- 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/ --
