Hi everyone, Conditions yesterday in Upstate New York and much of Pennsylvania were ideal for a widespread waterbird fallout. Here in Ithaca, this is sometimes referred to as the "Dryden Lake Effect", after the small lake in eastern Tompkins county that hosts numbers of grebes, scoters, loons and other divers in inclement weather (mostly mid-March to mid-April). This phenomenon applies to most waterbodies; when migrating birds run into precipitation they often land at whatever water they find. They prefer larger waterbodies, but will use what they can find.
Given the large number of birders exploring Tompkins and Broome counties, I was curious if I could find some of these species at some of the smaller lakes in Cortland County and was very pleased with the results. It's pretty fun to drive up to a little lake surrounded by houses, that really shouldn't have any birds and see White-winged Scoter or Red-necked Grebe. Highlights included: 3 Red-necked Grebes at Dwyer Memorial Park 2 White-winged Scoters at Song Lake and 2 at an impoundment along Hwy 11 (and 2 at Dryden Lake in Tompkins Co.) 5 Red-breasted Mergansers at the large quarry east of Cortland and a female at Dwyer Memorial Park 6 Common Loon at the large quarry east of Cortland. 5 Bonaparte's Gulls in a field south of Tully Lakes. 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull at the large quarry east of Cortland and 2 in a field in northeastern Tompkins County. I checked the south end of Owasco Lake and Skaneateles Lake and aside from a Common Loon at Owasco, did not see anything I thought was likely brought down by this system. eBird begins to show the widespread nature of this event. Even with no coordination among observers, it still appears that a good selection of waterbodies were checked yesterday. The links below are for the month of April for this year so as of this writing will show birds seen yesterday and this morning. If you click on these at the end of the week, they will show the results for the entire week (so click now!). While some of these birds have been present for long periods of time, I believe the great majority of birds at ponds and small lakes were brought down by yesterday's weather. Zoom into the Northeast. Also be sure to click on the points and then click the link for the checklists to view all the species that were seen. It's also interesting to compare places like Dryden Lake, which were heavily covered, to see the extent of movement throughout the day. The birds we saw in the morning were almost completely different from those in the afternoon afternoon. RED-NECKED GREBE http://ebird.org/ebird/map/rengre?&gp=true&bmo=4&emo=4&yr=on&byr=2012&eyr=2012 LONG-TAILED DUCK http://ebird.org/ebird/map/lotduc?&gp=true&bmo=4&emo=4&yr=on&byr=2012&eyr=2012 WHITE-WINGED SCOTER http://ebird.org/ebird/map/whwsco?&gp=true&bmo=4&emo=4&yr=on&byr=2012&eyr=2012 HORNED GREBE: http://ebird.org/ebird/map/horgre?&gp=true&bmo=4&emo=4&yr=on&byr=2012&eyr=2012 In part, this email is meant to highlight how interesting these low-ceiling, rainy spring days can be for birding. I encourage people to go beyond the usual "good places" and check water bodies that are poorly covered . . . and, of course, enter these into eBird so that we can gain a more complete picture of what is happening. Of course, checking on sunny days is important too (but probably won't result in as many unusual sightings). Incidentally, we have been writing weekly migration forecasts in eBird as part of our BirdCast work. To view this weeks (which suggested a fallout this weekend) visit the following URL: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/bcf20120330 Best wishes, Chris Wood eBird & Neotropical Birds Project Leader Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York http://ebird.org http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
