Bob McGuire and I went to see the SNOW OWL this morning, a very white bird sitting alongside the only remaining strip of white snow. It could have been any one of a million white lumps in the fields of Ovid when we sought it on Sunday. While we watched, a RED-TAILED HAWK cruised in from atop a nearby utility pole, obviously aiming at the owl, who did not flinch. The hawk veered off at the last second and landed about 10 yards away, where it stood in massive profile for a few seconds, then flew back to its pole beside the road. This was around 9:30am, and the owl remained there until at least 3:15pm from what I hear.
We decided to go around the lake, which was at times glassy at other times only slightly ruffled, and the temperatures were close enough to water temp that heat shimmer was not a big deal. However, the light was pretty dismal with eventually a light drizzle.
We only saw 4 HORNED GREBES, 1 from Elm Beach Rd close in, and 3 from the Wells College Boathouse far out, and a few COMMON LOONS various places, some quite close.
A highlight for me was the swans at the north end of the lake. The ice edge was near the Seneca Falls / Fayette town line, and there were a couple hundred presumed TUNDRA SWANS there, mostly sleeping, but some preening or feeding and intermittently identifiable. Among them was a pair of adult MUTE SWANS feeding. I noticed that their tails are more prominent. We did not check from Lower Lake Rd because we detoured to Van Cleef Lake, where there was 1 immature ICELAND GULL which looked much like the one which was at Stewart Park as recently as 20 January. From Mud Lock looking south we saw 2 or 3 thousand more TUNDRA SWANS, and these were noisily hooting. A few fairly close by were interacting with necks stretched up while they called. I had already scanned this group, but my attention was pulled back by a brief bray among the more melodious sounds. It turns out there were 5 TRUMPETER SWANS in this flock, 1 immature off to the side and 4 adults fairly close together. They were feeding and were less easy to see their bills to ID them, but then I realized that the water depth was such that the smaller Tundra Swans had to tip up to reach the bottom, while the larger Trumpeter Swans only had to stretch their necks down while their bodies remained flat on the water. Farther away on the ice I saw another swan, I think a Trumpeter with a green wing tag with the black number 242 paired with a similar looking untagged bird. Bob noticed a swan, a Tundra I think, which had a bill which was largely pale blue or silver.
Other birds we saw included:
LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL south from Dean's Cove
BALD EAGLE - 3 an adult in a shoreline tree south of Sheldrake Point, and 2 immatures on the ice seen from the Seneca Falls / Fayette line.
SNOW GEESE - 2 adults separately near Sheldrake Point, a group of 4 further north, and a few other singles or pairs, including some immatures, all white.
RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS - various places, including Sheldrake and just north of Long Point
COMMON MERGANSERS - many near the ice edge
HOODED MERGANSER - 1 female
COMMON GOLDENEYE - common
BUFFLEHEAD - uncommon - a few south of O'Malley's, a few in the Mill Pond in Union Springs, a few others elsewhere
RED-HEADS - flocks of a handful to a couple hundred flying past from time to time
CANVASBACK - perhaps a hundred with a larger number of Redheads near the Seneca Falls / Fayette line.
RING-NECKED DUCK - 6 females crowded near a dock south of Sheldrake Point
GREATER SCAUP - about 50 from Red Jacket
LESSER SCAUP - 2 with the GREATER SCAUP
GADWALLS - few here & there
AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS - along shore and out at sea
MALLARDS - along shore and out at sea
AMERICAN WIGEON - 1 male in Mill Pond
CANADA GOOSE - small numbers and small flocks various places.
Much of the lake seemed empty as did much of the Mucklands across NYS-31, but there were some Canada Geese and 1 Snow Goose visible to the south.
--Dave Nutter
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