Saturday's field trip was postponed until Sunday and despite the change, it was well attended with 27 folks turning up. We were greeted by cold but sunny weather to start but warmed up and kept the sun for most of the day. Our first stop on Hosmer Road was to look over a pond and into the sun. Lots of TUNDRA SWANS sleeping but Peg picked out a couple of SNOW GEESE mixed in. Closer scrutiny revealed 15 Snows among the Canada Geese. Further down Hosmer our traditional stop for EASTERN MEADOWLARK was successful but only for a few people. EASTERN BLUEBIRD and KILLDEER were also seen here. By the time we got up to the lake, a little after 9:00, some TURKEY VULTURES were already up, presaging a good flight for the day.
Barker Bicentennial Park produced multiple RED-NECKED and at least one HORNED GREBE and lots of the typical diving ducks. Dean picked out a white haze on the horizon that turned into a huge flock of SNOW GEESE, numbering in the thousands. After leaving the park, we stopped on Lower Lake Road where there was a good open view and watched the vultures and a few hawks, including a couple of beautiful RED-SHOULDEREDS. And we had lots more SNOW GEESE, most of these flying well out onto the lake. Inland, near and at my favorite field on Johnson Creek Road were two close CACKLING GEESE, several NORTHERN PINTAILS and two AMERICAN WIGEON. While we were unable to study the Snow Geese we saw today, usually because of distance, we also had huge numbers of Canada Geese, pretty much everywhere. We tried but were unable to pull out any White-fronted Geese. Our timing was a bit unlucky today, as a few times huge numbers of Canada Geese left an area just before or right when we encountered them. At Golden Hill State Park, we came upon another cloud of SNOW GEESE way out over the lake and some of them were visible after landing on the water. Good views of some water birds here, including more RED-NECKED and HORNED GREBES, NORTHERN PINTAILS, and the typical diving ducks. Further east we had a nice dark-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK among the Turkey Vultures. At Shadigee a BELTED KINGFISHER flew by and we had some more good views of ducks just beyond the near-shore ice. We added about a dozen RING-NECKED DUCKS and a REDHEAD on the Lyndonville Pond and closed out the day with an EASTERN SCREECH-OWL roosting in a tree hole. Bill Watson was a regular on this trip for most of the nearly 30 years that I have led it. And there is little doubt that we missed a few birds because we did not have Bill diligently searching and counting. He was with us in spirit, however, and his name came up more than a few times, mentioned with feelings of fondness and sadness. But in his memory we were determined to have a good time and in that I think we succeeded, thanks to a great group of birders. Happy spring! 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/> http://www.betsypottersart.com/willie-s-photos/2013-big-year/ Big Year List: <http://www.happtech.com/BigYearDanna/CurrentList/ShowCurrentListTable.aspx> http://www.happtech.com/BigYearDanna/CurrentList/ShowCurrentListTable.aspx Odenates: <http://www.betsypottersart.com/willie-s-photos/dragonflies> 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/[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/ --
