On Sunday I led a CBC full day around-the-lake field trip, joined by 8 others (2 staying only for the morning portion). The birding on the way up the lake was pretty sparse numbers-wise though reasonable species-wise, but mostly at scope distances. Thankfully, our scope-to-participant ratio was quite high.
At East Shore Park was a close group of American Coots accompanied by a lone male Redhead, and some relatively close Buffleheads (the one species that tended to stay close all day). At scoping distance were Scaups and Horned Grebes to the north, and towards Stewart Park many Ruddy Ducks plus Ring-necked Duck and possibly others I fail to remember. >From the Myers spit the lake was quite empty, though scoping found way out near Taughannock Point a pair of Wood Ducks, which took much squinting to recognize. Northern Flickers were calling (FOY for me), and continued to call almost everywhere we stopped. At Ladoga were some backlit American Coots and American Wigeons, while at scoping distance was a Common Loon. Just as we were ready to leave 2-3 FOY Tree Swallows flew by close, prompting Ann's ambiguous post of the year candidate: "Three Tree Swallows flying close to shore." We stopped by Sweazey Road to find an empty screech owl cavity, and got some exercise walking up the steep road, to be rewarded at the top by Eastern Bluebirds checking out a nestbox: first a female(-type), then a male, then two more F-types following the male. We wondered whether these last two were last year's fledges, or females involved in some flavor of "open relationship". In the fields around Long Point Winery we heard then found an Eastern Meadowlark, sporting a remarkably uncamouflaged dark brown against the golden field. A Northern Mockingbird complained from the power line before flying off, and a distant Northern Harrier quickly disappeared. Long Point State Park was "Long disap-Point" (as Ken described it), though we did scope some distant Red-Breasted Mergansers and flushed a flock of waxwings from a juniper tree, circling the sky and never to return for us to look for possible Bohemians. We may have had a Pied-Billed Grebe too (don't remember if that was here). Entering Aurora we pulled over to check out an adult Bald Eagle in the nest, then decided to skip the boathouse for a snack break at Dorie's. Union Spring's Frontenac Park did not have much; the Mill Pond was better with a few Redheads and Buffleheads and Ring-necked Ducks, while in the sky behind the pond, a fair-sized formation of Snow Geese drifted northward. Meanwhile, an adult medium-sized accipiter sat atop a roadside tree giving us nice but inconclusive side profile looks in scope; most decided it was a Cooper's Hawk based on largish head. In the village of Cayuga we skipped Harris Park to stop at Towpath Machine, where everyone excitedly jumped out of their cars to look at a lone prematurely-declared ross's goose that scrutiny couldn't help but rule as "just a" Snow Goose. A drive-by binocular look into the mud lock nest failed to notice any eagles. At the visitor's center was a nice gathering of birders enjoying the good number of Northern Pintails and Green-Winged Teals at moderate distance. Farther out were a good number of partly-obscured Tundra Swans, and 3-4 juvenile Bald Eagles perched variously on muskrat mounds and in the far distant woods. Many were misidentifying juvenile eagles as ospreys -- an interesting switcharoo of the more usual misidentification of osprey as eagle. We were caught up by Stuart, who reported all the good stuff at spots we decided to skip: white-winged scoters at the Aurora boathouse, large Aytha rafts from Harris Park (albeit on the far shore)... At the mucklands we drove passed decent numbers of ducks at the east end; when we reached the Potatoes building the surrounding pools were relatively empty. Four Snow Geese worked a near berm; beyond were Northern Pintails and further yet we found a hidden stash of American Wigeons, no eurasian. A Horned Lark occasionally made itself visible above the berm line for a distant scope view. We drove back to the east end of the mucklands, where the ducks we'd seen earlier seem to have disappeared. Scanning the north side, however, we found the best gathering of waterfowl so far, with zones of Ring-Necked Duck, Redhead, Canvasback, Northern Pintail, probably some others I forget. The earlier secret stash of wigeons, which by all geographic calculation should've been visible from here, was nowhere to be found. On to Knox-Marcellus with a nice spread of Snow Geese: many blue geese (some foraging individually far from the flock), but no Ross's. An adult Bald Eagle was picking at a dead snow goose, with some anxious American Crows impatiently trying to steal bits. A buteo made a pass then watched from a small tree, showing just enough ambiguous field marks to prevent our wishful rough-legged call to be definitively confirmed. Presently the eagle tired of its meal and made a beeline across the marsh, sending up the impressive swirl of squawking snow geese. Returning down the west shore, we drove along Lower Lake road looking at the good numbers of aythya on the water and bemoaning the lack of public parking and access; the aythya numbers decreased and eventually disappeared by the time we got to Cayuga Lake State Park. From there we scoped north at the scattering of dots on the water, while the sky filled with many more dots flushed by a passing train. We drove back north, parked at the corner of Lake and Lower Lake Roads and walked down to the nearby cemetery from which we scoped the aythyas flock. Good numbers, but nothing new or unusual. At Dean's Cove, we quickly found the Lesser Black-Backed Gull, who presently began moaning as it got chased and harassed by two juvenile Herring Gulls, flying back and forth over us before settling back down near the pier south of the cove. At Wyers Point Road, we pulled over to scope a suspected Golden Eagle the other car had noticed on the highway; we found it soaring over the distant trees, flying with a clear dihedral and long wings and no teetering. Further down Wyers Point road, just before reaching the lake shore, we looked across the field to the north at Pete's suspected bald eagle's nest, but saw no discernible occupant, though we didn't look very hard. Finally just north of Glenwood Pines, Ann showed us the inconvenient vantage of the Bald Eagle nest, with a single occupant within and a second unseen eagle presently initiating a sequence of complaints. Thanks to all who made this trip so much fun that it got drawn out almost two hours longer than I intended. Suan -- 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/ --
