>From Allan H Treman State Marine Park I was watching Ospreys on 6 April. >Looking east I saw an Osprey doing a display flight carrying a fish. The bird >appeared to be beyond Jetty Woods, probably over Fall Creek by Stewart Park. >Meanwhile a second Osprey perched high the narrow northern part of Jetty >Woods. The 2 Ospreys then met and appeared to use a Cormorant nest as a handy >place to share a picnic. Today (10 April) I saw 2 Ospreys there, but one of >them was bringing a stick. This looks like the Ospreys are intending to nest >on the NW edge of the Cormorant colony using what I assume was previously a >Cormorant nest as the base of their own. (At the same time there were 2 >Ospreys by the nest in the NW corner of Newman Golf Course, across Cayuga >Inlet from the boat ramp, so it wasn’t them.) I wonder what the Cormorants >think of the Ospreys joining them. I also think it’s neat that the Ospreys are >not depending on a human-built structure.
A few weeks back someone wrote about flocks of Chickadees. I’m accustomed to winter flocks with just a few Chickadees joined by an assortment of woodpeckers, titmice, and nuthatches. But this is different. For the past few days at Allan H Treman State Park I have been seeing flocks of just Chickadees: ten, twenty, thirty, or more in the tree crowns and flying across openings or fields to reach other trees. The Chickadees have been mostly moving east, sometimes stopping along Cayuga Inlet. They like the bare Tamaracks near the Park Police office. They seem to especially like the large Cottonwoods with swollen buds along the north side of the marina near Cayuga Inlet. (This is also an area where a Merlin has been spending time when it isn’t perched in the treetops of Jetty Woods. It tried to grab a small bird over Cayuga Inlet but failed.) I have only seen one Great Black-backed Gull lately around Allan H Treman State Marine Park lately, even as I scope across toward Stewart Park. The adults seem to have migrated back to their breeding grounds, but this is an immature with no need travel and compete with breeding adults. Maybe it will spend the summer here. I feel like this bird is becoming familiar. It is banded, and I have seen it several times before. On its left leg is a black plastic band with white writing: 4JF. I first noticed it in the winter of last year, and when I reported it I learned that it was banded before it was old enough to fly in July of 2019 on Appledore Island off the coast of Maine. If you have had the good fortune to go to Cornell programs at the Shoals Marine Lab there in Spring or Summer you will doubtless recall certain parts of the island where you needed to protect yourself from being pecked or shat upon by nesting Herring Gulls or Great Black-backed Gulls. That’s where this bird is from. Maybe someday it will return there to breed. If you scope this gull well enough to read the band, you too can help keep track of it by going to this website: reportband.gov I think this bird flew past my house yesterday, but I haven’t yet been able to see the band on the bird in flight. There was a second banded Great Black-backed Gull with this bird when I first saw it last year, but I haven’t seen that bird since. - - 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/ --
