Speaking of compliant Phoebes, I walked to Sherwood Platform at lunch and met (first time) a visitor/birder from NYC. As he was turning to leave and I was approaching, I spotted a Phoebe on the hand rail and pointed it out to him. It was 5’ away. Then it hopped to a closer post and eventually to about 3’ from us. We remarked that it must be a juvenile though it was in full feather. Then it landed on the floor of the platform in the hot sun and spread its wings and squashed its belly down, opened its mouth and started sunning. We had to walk around it (!) to get back to the rail to look for herons and kingbirds, etc. It finally flew into the bushes at its own good time.
I have often thought of tethering a flycatcher to my hat to ward off mosquitoes... ChrisP ______________________ Chris Pelkie Information/Data Manager; IT Support Bioacoustics Research Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 On Jul 27, 2015, at 12:10, Linda Orkin <wingmagi...@gmail.com<mailto:wingmagi...@gmail.com>> wrote: I thought people might be interested in reading these. The leaders write up these reports each week and they are posted on the Cayugabirdclub.org<http://Cayugabirdclub.org> website under About us, and then field trips. Hope you enjoy. I plan on posting them each week, as long as this is okay with the list administrator. Linda Orkin Reports from this past weekend's beginner bird walks led by Cayuga Bird Club Members. Saturday from Lisa Wood. 22 participants. Big group today, so I was grateful for help from CBC member Donna Coventry Wray, who’s been on many, many of these walks and is a multiple-year SFO alumna. A few “townies” were mixed in with the many visitors. We had several memorable experiences in the 2.5 hours it took us to get all the way around the Wilson Trail. First, we had good looks at a silent Yellow Warbler pair foraging in full sun near the Owens Platform boardwalk. From the platform itself, we watched a long and daring (and comical) “tightrope“ walk by a Green Heron across a section of the wire above the pond. From the Sherwood Platform, everyone enjoyed watching Eastern Kingbirds feeding busily and noisily above the lily pads. Having seen a Great Crested Flycatcher earlier, we declared it a flycatcher day when, by the pergola, we were repeatedly “buzzed” by a brave little Eastern Phoebe. The bird first flew from the island over to the shore and perched above us, quite close. That was a nice treat, but then it actually flew to a couple of us, close to our faces and above our heads/hats—close enough that those of us in the front couldn’t help but flinch. Evidently the bird was after the mosquitoes that were after us! It successfully caught prey several times while we stood there—what a thrill for all of us! And Sunday from Paul Anderson 10 participants.I had ten people show up: a group of six students from Colombia, a couple from New Jersey and a two ladies from Binghamton. There was a lot to see, even if little of it was unusual. Many juveniles of many species were out begging. We saw more flycatchers - mostly Phoebes - than I've ever seen on one of these walks. The mosquitoes were voracious. An early highlight was a Green Heron on the main pond, but everybody's favorite was a group of three baby Wood Ducks. -- Veganism is simply the acknowledgment that a replaceable and fleeting pleasure isn't more valuable than someone's life and liberty. ~ Unknown If you permit this evil, what is the good of the good of your life? -Stanley Kunitz... -- 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/ --
