Hello all, While I am sure I saw a YELLOW-BILLED LOON I am still somewhat in shock that such a rare bird would make an appearance in my spotting scope! Nick Sly and I made the pre-dawn drive up from Ithaca and spent the morning lakewatching from the north end of Broadway Rd. Our excellent views of an immature BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE shortly after 9:00 helped reinvigorate our lakewatching efforts, as we were quite cold. I moved from the freezing wind-swept eastern side to the sunny western side of the bluffs to begin another scan. Shortly after 9:30, an enormous, jet-black, breeding-plumaged loon came into view, not exceedingly far from shore, flying due west. The most obvious thing about it in the morning light against the dark blue water was its long, thick-based, bright yellow bill. Almost immediately after yelling it out the bird banked to the NW and all of a sudden I could no longer see the bird's bill at all (I think mostly due to the angle of flight rather than any lighting effects). Although there was a significant amount of white on the shoulders of the bird as it flew away it wasn't as much as I might expect for a full breeding-plumaged bird. I noted the bird's belly and underwings were clean white, and that the feet were rather large, but otherwise I was mostly struggling to follow it as it passed behind trees, and praying it wouldn't keep flying the same direction it was. But it did, and that was that. We stayed at Broadway Rd. another half hour in case the bird decided to return, and checked a number of points west all the way to Chimney Bluffs with no luck. I hope others will be able to see the bird again, as it is decidedly spectacular.
Good birding, Tim Lenz t...@cornell.edu Ithaca On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 10:16 AM, Scott Haber <scotthab...@gmail.com> wrote: > Tim Lenz just posted to the CAYUGARBA text alert that a/the > breeding-plumaged YELLOW-BILLED LOON was seen flying west from Broadway > Road on Lake Ontario this morning. This is just west of Fair Haven...likely > the same bird Chris Wood reported a few weeks ago. > > I'm sure we'll get a more detailed report from Tim later, if not further > updates. > > -Scott Haber > > > -- > *NYSbirds-L List Info:* > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME> > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES> > Subscribe, Configuration and > Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > *Archives:* > The Mail > Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> > Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> > BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html> > *Please submit your observations to **eBird*<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/> > *!* > -- > -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
