[cayugabirds-l] Budget Woes Hit VIC's
Birders - There is some serious talk of closing the Visitor Interpretive Centers run by the ADK Park Agency at Paul Smiths and Newcomb. It was a long hard struggle by many including then APA Chair Woody Cole to fund and open these centers. If Governor Patterson can afford to give our outgoing Syracuse mayor a $150 thousand no-show executive job, then the state should be able to fund environmental education in the 6 Million acre Adirondack Park. When the VICs closed on Sunday and Monday there was no outcry. Now there are rumblings to close them down entirely. If you've ever visited these beautiful centers, please drop a note to your state legislator and our governor to keep these centers open. Bernie Carr Syracuse, NY mycocarexathotmaildotcom -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Wednesday birding
This morning I hit a couple local spots, with a few notable birds. Stevenson Road compost - Iceland Gull Sapsucker Woods, Wilson Trail N - Cedar Waxwing, House Finch, RED-SHOULDERED HAWK, Sharp-shinned Hawk, YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER (called several times from high in the trees, never seen), Pileated Woodpeckers Hanshaw Road near Etna Road - Northern Flicker Then I met up with Tom Johnson around midday and we headed up the east side of the lake. Highlights: Myers Point - 11 Gadwall Aurora Bay - 4 Horned Grebes Union Springs - Eastern Screech-Owl, Gadwall Harris Park, Cayuga - 7 MUTE SWANS Mud Lock/North of Railroad Bridge - hundreds of Tundra Swans, Redhead, Canvasback, Ring-necked Duck Savannah Mucklands - 1000+ gulls towards the east of the mucklands; lots of interesting looking Herring Gulls, but nothing out of the ordinary that we could find; several hundred Canada Geese with one presumed CANADA x SNOW HYBRID (overall similar to Blue Goose: white head and neck, more uniformly dark body than Snow; bill darker than Snow; in flight with a white V rump like Canada); SAVANNAH SPARROW calling with American Tree Sparrows in the ditch along the highway. Ice edge, south end of Cayuga Lake State Park road - Great Blue Heron, Tundra Swans, 2 Snow Geese, white domestic goose, no other geese or gulls of note Varick - Belted Kingfisher Sheldrake - 20+ Red-breasted Mergansers, 2 Hooded Mergansers At Stewart Park around 4:00, the same dark Iceland Gull was on the ice with the other gulls, a flock of 17 Canvasback flew by, and lots of geese on the ice, though we couldn't find anything of note amongst them. Jay McGowan Dryden, NY -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
RE: [nysbirds-l] Cayuga Basin photos 2010
I just looked through Kevin's Herring Gull flight shots. Though it is a relatively small sample (27 images), it shows considerable variation - and the photos just show the under-side! I found it interesting that photos 13, 18, 19, and 27 all show adults (or near adults) with a rather Slaty-backed Gull-like "string-of-pearls". It is not generally discussed, probably because it is not usually important for identification, but Herring Gulls often show such a field mark. However, the birds in the photos mentioned show it quite well, including a "pearl" on primary 8, the primary least likely to have one. One can certainly see the value in having a site with many more photos, showing even more of the tremendous variation in this and other gulls. Perhaps this is just a start for Kevin... Cheers and good gulling! Willie -Original Message- From: bounce-5063451-3714...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-5063451-3714...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Kevin McGowan Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 8:12 PM To: cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu; nysbird...@cornell.edu Subject: [nysbirds-l] Cayuga Basin photos 2010 Although I haven't really finished my 2009 Cayuga Basin Birds gallery, I just posted my 2010 Basin gallery (up to this point) at http://picasaweb.google.com/KevinJ.McGowan/BasinBirds2010. As usual, these are my choice of one single photo per species of the birds I've recorded in the Cayuga Lake Basin so far this year. Some are portraits, some are crap, and I hope some approach art. Although the great majority are digiscoped like all my other photos posted on the web over the last decade (wow, hadn't thought about that before!; 10 years digiscoping on the web!), a few were taken with a digital SLR. I still cannot afford to buy myself one, but a friend just bought a nice camera and graciously lent it to me for a few days. While I had it I took about 1,000 photos a day, a few of which have been included in this gallery. Some may not be obvious, but most of them should be. Here's a hint: it's freakin' difficult to take good flying shots digiscoping. It's not exactly easy with a dSLR, but it's WAY easier. I also used the occasion to collect a series of flying Herring Gull photos to demonstrate some of the variation that we see in central New York during the winter. That is posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/KevinJ.McGowan/HerringGullsInIthaca. The one-shot Basin gallery has been something of a personal challenge for me (anyone remember The Deer Hunter?). Do you know how hard it is to pick ONE photo of a species when a bird has been particularly cooperative? I mean, is it portrait or interesting behavior? Cool behavior or really great background? Good composition or really good look at the undertail coverts? Since 2007 I've struggled with posting only the single select photos for each year. I wish that meant the good photos, but if you've been here before you know that's not exactly the case. So, I'm thinking about posting some other interesting shots in another gallery. I'll try to be selective and not waste your time, but it might be a series of repetitive stuff. Look for it. Kevin * Kevin J. McGowan Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 k...@cornell.edu http://birds.cornell.edu/crows/ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbird...@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 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 ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbird...@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Iceland Gull at Stevenson Road
This morning I had a first cycle ICELAND GULL at the compost by the Game Farm. It was a very dark-chested individual. So dark, in fact, I thought it might be a Thayer's when I first saw it. But the wingtips are very pale, as is the tail. It was a little timid coming in to the active pile. Jay just had it loafing on the hill. A warning about the compost: while the ground is frozen it is still accessible. It's rough, though, and if the muds gets above freezing it's going to be impassible for anything except a tractor. Even now I'd stay away from areas that look wet (the runoff from the piles is warm). If it get to the high 30s today, I probably would not take my 4-wheel drive in there. Kevin -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Red-shouldered Hawk at Lab
The RED-SHOULDERED HAWK is currently sitting in the big snag in the pond at the Lab of O. Kevin -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
