Celeste Morien, Sue Barth, Betsy Potter, and I met at Celeste's for a day of birding today. No Redpolls at her feeder today (they were seen yesterday), so we settled for six PINE SISKINS. Making our way to the Batavia WWTP we had lots of Juncos and Tree Sparrows on the road shoulders. We also had two FOX SPARROWS as well as a LAPLAND LONGSPUR with HORNED LARKS. At the Batavia WWTP, we had 100 NORTHERN SHOVELERS, 46 RUDDY DUCKS, 2 RING-NECKD DUCKS, and 64 MALLARDS, most of which were in the aerated ponds that are near the administration building. Other birds seen on other ponds in small openings in the ice were single HOODED and COMMON MERGANSERS, two BONAPARTE'S GULLS, 12 TUNDRA SWANS, and an AMERICAN PIPIT. We also had an adult BALD EAGLE fly over. No sign of the Eared Grebes. We found the huge flock of CEDAR WAXWINGS along the south side of the plant property, roughly 500 birds, and had good long studies of them as they teed up in bare deciduous trees. We could not come up with the recently reported Bohemian Waxwings - we are pretty sure they just were not there. We then tried the Batavia Airport where three Snowy Owls have been seen in recent weeks but found none.
Along Allis Road in the Town of Shelby, Orleans County, we had three LAPLAND LONGSPURS with 14 HORNED LARKS. Along nearby Martin Road we found a very white adult male SNOWY OWL (east of Bigford Rd), making up for missing it at Batavia. Also along Martin Road, near East Shelby Road, we had a flock of several hundred MALLARDS, with a few BLACK DUCKS, landing in distant fields and a half frozen pond. Nearby was a flock of 250 SNOW BUNTINGS. After leaving Celeste's house, Sue found two GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE with a huge flock of CANADA GEESE along Fletcher Chapel Road. We were almost right behind her and also got to see these birds. However, they flew before Celeste could get there. They appeared to be headed to Ring-necked Marsh at Iroquois NWR, possibly to roost for the night. This would be a good place to look for them in upcoming days. Good birding! Willie ------------------ Willie D'Anna Betsy Potter Wilson, NY dannapotterATroadrunner.com http://www.betsypottersart.com <http://www.betsypottersart.com/> 2013 Big Year: http://www.betsypottersart.com/willie-s-photos/2013-big-year/ Big Year List: http://www.happtech.com/BigYearDanna/CurrentList/ShowCurrentListTable.aspx Odenates: http://www.betsypottersart.com/willie-s-photos/dragonflies -- 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/ --
