This morning Tim Lenz was scanning Cayuga Lake from Taughannock Falls State Park when he saw a PACIFIC LOON fly north past him, circle back, go south, and drop to the water, disappearing in shimmer aligned with and apparently closer to the Myers Point lighthouse. He also saw 4 Red-throated and 30 Common Loons and a Red-necked Grebe.
I succumbed to temptation, drove to Myers, and did not see any Pacific Loon, but there was considerable shimmer, particularly looking along the lake toward Taughannock. However, I did see 2 Common Loons and a Red-necked Grebe among numerous gulls on the water to the north past Salt Point and fairly close to the east shore. I also saw a Common Loon to the west from the lighthouse. Scanning from Ladoga Park Rd I saw another Common Loon in the bay to the south. On my way home I paused along East Shore Drive just north of the “Town of Ithaca” sign. I turned around and parked in the gravel area on the northbound side near #1143 and scoped from there rather than crossing the street. From here I saw 2 more Common Loons as well as the flock of female-type BLACK SCOTERS which Mark Chao recently mentioned. They were swimming and diving in the middle of the lake directly out from here, providing a much better scope view than I had from East Shore Park, and I believe their number has increased to 20. A quick scan from the east end of Stewart Park revealed an assortment of water birds, including Mallards, Buffleheads, Greater and Lesser Scaup, Surf and White-winged Scoters, Common Mergansers, Pied-billed Grebes, Double-crested Cormorants, and American Coots. - - Dave Nutter -- 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/ --
