Apologies for the late report. Yesterday I was at Tschache Pool with my sister, (2:15 pm) and we were watching one adult Bald Eagle and two Juvenile Bald Eagles soaring high over Tsachache Pool. The Juveniles engaged in some acrobatics and one flew towards the other and turned upsidedown and they grabbed talons. They did this a couple times. There were lots of swallows flying around also, at all levels, mostly Tree Swallows. The sun was bright with blue skies and some clouds around. Sally caught glimse of two white specs way up - further than the Eagles, and a bit more west. The two birds circled and soared but staying in the same general area. As we looked at them we could see black on the wings, and the black extended down the length of the wing. Not Snow Geese. They appeared bulky to me, especially the head. I realized they were American White Pelicans. They started to glide around, heading east. We lost sight of them.
Sally wanted to see if she could find Sandhill Cranes. We drove over to East Road and stopped west of the Knoz-Marcellus pulloff to check a raptor on the wire. This was at 2:45 pm. It was a beautiful female Kestral, who flew out hunting and hoovering over the grassy field. I got out my scope to check Knox-Marcellus. There were a variety of ducks including Mallards, American Widgeon, Gadwall, Nothern Shoveler. Six Great Blue Herons and two Swans. We spotted a large bird in a tree (on western edge). It was an adult Bald Eagle. As we looked around Sally *again* saw two white specs in the sky. Through our binocs we could see they were two American White Pelicans. (I assumed the same two) They seemed to be closer. They got much further apart, but seemed to be decending. I managed to get my scope on one of them, and sure enough they came down and landed in the western most area of the water, right out in front of us. The one I was watching I could see something on it's bill. I wondered if it was ok. I later looked at pictures of them and in breeding season they have a "knob" like protuberance on top of their bill. They fairly quickly swam west, and went behind the high grasses out there, and were out of sight. At one point in our travels, we did see one flyby Sandhill Crane. The winds were out of the north yesterday, and very strong WNW winds today so maybe they will stay around a bit longer. Good Birding, Gladys -- 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/ --
