[cayugabirds-l] River Ride
We took a kayak ride from Kanona to Campbell down the Cohocton River. It was about a 15 mile excursion and we saw the usual suspects.common mergansers, hooded mergansers, wood ducks, mallards, geese, etc. But the Bald Eagle nest with a sitting parent was by far the best part. The nest was in a deciduous tree in an open field, about 150 yards off the river. (Bath, NY) It was quite a site. -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Syracuse RBA
RBA * New York * Syracuse * March 19, 2012 * NYSY 03.19.12 Hotline: Syracuse Rare bird Alert Dates(s): March 12, 2012 - March 19, 2012 to report by e-mail: brinjoseph AT yahoo.com covering upstate NY counties: Cayuga, Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge and Montezuma Wetlands Complex (MWC) (just outside Cayuga County), Onondaga, Oswego, Lewis, Jefferson, Oneida, Herkimer, Madison Cortland compiled:March 19 AT 6:30 p.m. (EST) compiler: Joseph Brin Onondaga Audubon Homepage: www.onondagaaudubon.org #297 -Monday March 19, 2012 Greetings! This is the Syracuse Area Rare Bird Alert for the week of March 12 , 2012 Highlights: --- EURASIAN WIGEON BLUE-WINGED TEAL BLACK VULTURE GOLDEN EAGLE SANDHILL CRANE COMMON GALLINULE GREATER YELLOWLEGS SNOWY OWL SHORT-EARED OWL NORTHERN SHRIKE AMERICAN PIPIT BOHEMIAN WAXWING DICKCISSEL SAVANNAH SPARROW FOX SPARROW WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge (MNWR) and Montezuma Wetlands Complex (MWC) 3/13: A BLUE-WINGED TEAL was found at the Visitor’s Center. The number would grow to 4 by 3/18. 3 SANDHILL CRANES were seen at the DEC offices in Savannah. 3/14: A NORTHERN SHRIKE was seen at Tsache Pool and at VanDyne Spoor road. 3/15: 2 COMMON GALLINULES were found at Marten’s Tract. 3/17: AN EURASIAN WIGEON was seen at Tschache Pool. 3/19: FOS PIPIT and SAVANNAH SPARROW were found at East Road. For the week 19 species of waterfowl were reported at the complex. Oddly enough TUNDRA SWAN and SNOW GOOSE which had been in abudance earlier,were not reported. Derby Hill Observatory A good week at Derby Hill with 2,498 Raptors being recorded. The big day was 3/17 with 1,318 birds being counted, the first thousand bird day of the season. 3/13 had the first PEREGRINE FALCON and 3/15 the first BLACK VULTURES (2). This is also the earliest date for Black Vulture at Derby Hill. Another BLACK VULTURE was seen on 3/17. Other highlights for the week: 3/12: 113 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS and 15 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS. 3/13: 9 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS and 1 SANDHILL CRANE. 3/16: 1 SHORT-EARED OWL and 9 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS. 3/17: 23 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS. Onondaga County 3/13: A male DICKCISSEL was seen at a feeder in Camillus. It came again on 3/15 but has not been reported since. 3/14: A MERLIN was seen in Berry Park in Syracuse. A RAVEN was seen in the Tully area. 3/15: An EURASIAN WIGEON was relocated at the Eagle Pool in Three Rivers WMA north of Baldwinsville. On 3/18 two EURASIAN WIGEONS were reported there. 3/17: A GOLDEN EAGLE was seen soaring over Schiller Park in Syracuse. 3/18: 2 SNOWY OWLS continue to be seen at Syracuse’s Hancock Airport. Madison County 3/15: 3 FOS FOX SPARROWS were seen in Erieville. 3/18: An EURASIAN WIGEON was seen at the Great Swamp Conservancy near Canastota. Cayuga County 3/15: A GREAT HORNED OWL has again nested in a Heron Rookery at Sterling Nature Center. 2 TRUMPETER SWANS were seen in one of the ponds there and at nearby McIntyre Bluffs a NORTHERN SHRIKE was spotted. Jefferson County 3/18: An astounding 2,000 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS were found at Robert Wehle State Park in the Town of Henderson near Lake Ontario. New Migrants reported this week. 3/13: BLUE-WINGED TEAL - Montezuma 3/13: GREATER YELLOWLEGS - Montezuma 3/15: COMMON GALLINULE - Montezuma 3/15: BLACK VULTURE - Derby Hill 3/15: FOX SPARROW - Erieville 3/19: AMERICAN PIPIT - Montezuma 3/19: SAVANNAH SPARROW - Montezuma End Transcript -- Joseph Brin Region 5 Baldwinsville, N.Y. 13027 U.S.A. -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Golden eagle heading towards lab of O
Hi all, Just now a fairly low flying GOLDEN EAGLE flew northwards and I could watch it till it almost disappeared. It glided with slight wide opened view and beat wings a few times, then again glided with some more powerful wing beats and glide till it went out of my sight! I also saw the Corpse flower. It was awesome. I was expecting the stink to rub to myself and smell like a dead person, but surprisingly by the time I was in the room, I hardly smelt it. May be my brain had already reached saturation and got habituated, it could no longer perceive the smell. Plus we were admiring the flowers beauty. Worth a visit. I highly recommend it! Meena -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Gray crowned rosy finch
Front page news of my hometown newspaper- the Boonville Herald - features the adventures of the Gray Crowned Rosy Finch in Locust Grove. It even made mention in George Capron's column, excerpts from calls he receives at the local radio station. Am happy to share if anyone is interested in seeing the article. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the little visitor. Lois Chaplin -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Beam Hill Red-shouldered Hawks, Siskins
The Red-shouldered Hawks have returned to Beam Hill (west) and are making their presence known with lots of vocalizations and aerial displays. There are at least two who have been making regular appearances. My neighbor saw one with nesting material this morning. I witnessed one land at my pond's edge and snag a frog. The hawk took off about a minute later, into the nearby woods. It's been a couple days since I've heard or seen the flock of Pine Siskins who have been hanging out for the past few weeks. Their calls have only added to the oddness of the times. I enjoy gardening all the time keeping an ear to the bird song in the air. Siskins are typically long gone by the time I'm able to get into the garden. A year ago, we were skiing to the Robin calls. Lois Chaplin Beam Hill -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
RE: [cayugabirds-l] Turkey Vultures
Hey Brad and all, I did the same too. I scanned the flock three times for Black Vulture, but my flock was smaller than yours and had only 22 birds. I just got back from watching them. they seemed so care less (as opposed to careless) and effortlessly circled around and finally headed up Six Miles Creek, probably hoping to roost somewhere. Yesterday afternoon, while I was hanging out laundry in my yard, a Bald Eagle circled over my head fairly close, I was thinking of heading inside to my camera, it floated south. But soon returned, but was little higher than previous time and circled and floated away to west. Meena Haribal Ithaca NY 14850 http://haribal.org/ http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ From: bounce-43528285-3493...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-43528285-3493...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Brad Walker [edgarallenhoo...@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, March 19, 2012 5:55 PM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Turkey Vultures Hi all, There is currently a kettle of about 100 TURKEY VULTURES over downtown Ithaca. I've gone through the group several times, but didn't see a Black Vulture. -- Brad Walker -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basicshttp://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME Rules and Informationhttp://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES Subscribe, Configuration and Leavehttp://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm Archives: The Mail Archivehttp://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html Surfbirdshttp://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds BirdingOnThe.Nethttp://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBirdhttp://ebird.org/content/ebird/! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Blackbirds and Blackbirds and blackbirds and others this past week at MNWR
Last week, I visited MNWR in search of blackbird black clouds. On Thursday morning I was there on the auto drive at civil light and spent time till about 15 minutes after sunrise as I had to head back to work. I had spectacular views of blackbirds rising from the marsh and heading out to feed in the morning. So on Saturday, I was not quite sure if there would be yet black birds or not, deiced to give another try. So again I arrived at MNWR at the break of civil light and watched the mind boggling view. So here I have uploaded a small clip on you tube with the following description. On a foggy morning just before sunrise on March 17 2012, millions of blackbirds, mixture of Red-winged Blackbirds and Grackles were starting to form groups to take off of foraging. Sometimes, they formed waves like tornado clouds, at other time they were more like PCR plots or DA plots with several clusters of clouds. Some clouds overlapped, while others kept to themselves. It was difficult to predict from where they will rise. But between civil light, at least that is when I arrived and by sunrise most of the birds had left the marsh and most returned only just about fifteen minutes before sunset. Then marsh seemed empty except for a few local resident blackbirds by now that have taken up residence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wir8JFXWkvk After that view, I felt greedy and wanted to get the blackbirds returning to marsh in the evening with sunset background. So deiced to spend rest of the day at MNWR as I did not want to come back to Ithaca and go back again. I visited various other locations in the northern Montezuma nothing much so very spectacular. At Carncross road, I heard two SANDHILL CRANES, several TREE SWALLOWS , SONG SPARROWS and five BLUE BIRDS were claiming territories. I listened to each and every song sparrow's songs and iedto distinguish them by song to kill time. At Marten's tract some one seemed to be camping in car, so I did not feel comfortable spending time there alone. But I did watch two Swallows on two nest boxes and chattering excitedly and there was no sign of bluebirds anywhere near by. Other locations I came up empty. Then I returned to Tschache and scanned all the ducks and scanned widgeons for a Eurasian and did not find it. An hour later Nutter and party arrived and Nutter finds EURASIAN WIDGEON in the pool far end. When I had scanned there were not so many Widgeons in that location :-( As I had not planned on spending full day at MNWR, I ran out of water and it was hot. So I headed to nice and easy gas station and returned with one gallon of water jug and there still another six to seven hours to kill before the blackbirds returned. Luckily I had two books in my car, one by Dennis Paulson on Eastern Odonates and then Barbara Kingsolver's Homeland. So I sat in the shade of the corral near visitor center and listened to and watched birds while I read the books. There were three song sparrows around the corral and listened to their song, now I feel confident that I may be able to recognize them if I heard them anywhere as they sang so many times. I also watched what Red-winged Blackbird males did when they were not claiming their property. They were pulling insects (I think) out of cattail cotton. While at the corral several SNOW GEESE flocks flew overhead. In one small group there was a very small goose, which I believe was a ROSS's GOOSE. In past few days I had scanned many snow geese flocks with thousands of birds and did not find a Ross's goose, but here in a small group there is one! I also saw a lone DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANT flying north. Still I had an hour and half to kill before the birds came back. Breeze was lovely and fresh air, so it was just relaxing to sit and enjoy the surroundings. One hour before sunset, I drove on the auto drive and stationed near LaRue's Lagoon. As sun was getting low, shoveler's were getting their quota of food, all of a sudden a group of TREE SWALLOWS started skimming over water and catching insects. Then they all assembled on a tree, there were at least some 300+. I was hoping to keep an eye to see if they roosted on the tree or on the marsh. But by then slowly blackbirds started trickling in and I totally forgot about swallows. Most of the early birds did not head off to marsh, but stopped on tallest trees. They came down small groups, they landed on the banks of La Rue lagoon and had bath, but they were not clearly visible as there was tall grass or mud around them. Soon thousands started pouring in. They would land at one place and then the whole flock would rise and swirl around and land elsewhere. Again move from there and land elsewhere. This went on! After sunset from west incessant river of black birds poured in to the marsh. They went on and on till the Venus and Mars became visible and rest became darker. I decided it was time to call it a night!
