[cayugabirds-l] Saturday Around the Lake
John Confer and I drove the lake circuit today, looking for anything of interest. And we did find a few things. Center Road - 50 Snow Buntings, 6 Horned Larks Lake Ridge Road - 2 rather late EASTERN MEADOWLARKS Aurora Bay - at least 140 Common Loons, 10 Horned Grebes Frontenac Park (Union Springs) - 8 Bonaparte's Gulls. Some foraging, some just loafing. MNWR Visitor's Center - juv. GLOSSY IBIS, 2 Dunlin Knox/Marsellus Marsh - hundreds of Tundra Swans, 34 Sandhill Cranes (my count - may have been one or two more) And, no, this is not the entire list of birds seen/heard today! Bob McGuire -- 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] Saturday around the lake
Just a quick note with some of my highlights from the day. I went up the lake with Brad Walker, Livia Santana, and Flávia Guimarães. The east side was pretty quiet until north of Union Springs, where we could see the huge Snow Goose flock still out on the lake, closer to the west side. Cayuga, Harris Park, and Mud Lock were active with lots of the normal waterfowl, but nothing out of the ordinary. Similarly the Mucklands had lots of Northern Pintail and Tundra Swans but not much variety of waterfowl. Brad spotted a juvenile WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW in the weeds along the highway, though. On Van Dyne Spoor Road we found a nice adult NORTHERN SHRIKE and then had great looks at a beautiful juvenile GOLDEN EAGLE circling low over the forest edge. Carncross Road had a lot of gulls but nothing different. As Chris Posted, the Snow Goose flock was excellently viewed from near the south end of Lower Lake Road in Canoga. With some effort I relocated the adult male EURASIAN WIGEON, though it disappeared into the flock again before others could get on it. We eventually also found at least two ROSS'S GEESE in the group, one a typical adult quite close in the flock, and the other perhaps a mostly-adult plumaged juvenile even closer, right on the front edge, an absolutely TINY bird: https://picasaweb.google.com/37855303614931880/LateWinter2013#585352518855906 Who knows how many more were farther into the flock. None that we could see. -- Jay McGowan Macaulay Library Cornell Lab of Ornithology jw...@cornell.edu -- 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] Saturday Around the Lake
John Confer and I birded up the east and down the west side of the Lake yesterday. Beginning at Stewart Park, we had most of the birds reported by Dave Nicosia with the addition of a PEREGRINE FALCON preening in one of the trees across Fall Creek from the boathouse. We skipped Myers, and our next stop was at Long Point SP. A short walk east up the hill produced numerous Chickadees, Titmice, a couple of Golden-crowned Kinglets, and a large flock of Robins (100+). From the boathouse in Aurora we found 6 Horned Grebes but no Eared Grebe. We checked for grebes at last weekend's hot spots: Twin Oaks Campground, Fire Lane 20, and found none. The large Aythya flock was along the shore between FL 20 and the new development just south of the railroad tracks and was being watched over by an adult Bald Eagle. From the Towpath Machine Shop we scanned the distant ducks and swans, picking through Redheads, Canvasbacks, a few Northern Pintails, both Scaup, and American Wigeon - but could not find a Eurasian. There was a family of distant Mute Swans. A Bald Eagle was on the nest at Mudlock. We then drove through the Mucklands. The fields were still frozen, but the ditches were ice-free. There was considerable open water along Van Dyne Spoor Road, and the Pintails were beginning to move in. There were a couple of Tree Sparrows and a pair of RED-WING BLACKBIRDS. Around Carncross Road and again, Armitage Road, the ice was beginning to melt, but no sign of cranes or snipe. The water along Cayuga Lake SP was filled with Tundra Swans, Canada Geese, Mallards, Black Ducks, Common Mergansers, Common Goldeneye and a smattering of Scaup, Ring-necked Ducks, Redhead, Cavasbacks, American Wigeon, and Pintails. A flock of some 2,000 Snow Geese rested just offshore at the south end of the park. At one point most of the flock took to the air and then eventually settled back down. We scanned them as they moved overhead, but could not find any noticeably smaller birds. After the Peregrine at Stewart park, out best bird for the day was a female WHITE-WINGED SCOTER seen from Wyers Point Road north of Sheldrake. We also had there a couple of Red-breasted Mergansers and several dozen Ring-necked Ducks. Bob McGuire -- 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] Saturday around the lake
Hi all, Ton and I went around the lake yesterday, Saturday, for some birding. The wind was strong from the southwest all day. We started out on Stevenson Rd., in the area around the Pheasant Farm in Ithaca where there was a huge flock (200+) of mostly female REDWING BLACKBIRDS, with a few GRACKLES mixed in. In addition, the area held 8 TURKEY VULTURES, one BLUEBIRD and only 2 REDTAILED HAWKS in addition to the hundreds of AMERICAN CROWS. We then stopped at Myers Point (skipped Stewart Park, so missed Tim's scoter), which was empty except for MALLARDS. On up the east side of the lake - where we spotted one KESTREL along the way before we stopped at Long Point Park. One (and the only one of the day) COMMON LOON and several BLACK DUCKS. Aurora Bay had more BLACK DUCKS and a fly-by CORMORANT and one CANADA GOOSE. In Union Springs, the Factory Rd. pond had 6 GADWALL (3 pairs) while the larger pond along the main road contained MALLARDS and 2 female BUFFLEHEAD. The lake was pretty empty! Only a couple of Mallards at the town hall park in Cayuga. Around 2 pm we arrived at the Visitors Center at Montezuma. The following lists were entered into eBIRD. X means too many (or too difficult) to count. Location: Montezuma NWR--Visitor Center Number of species: 7 Canada Goose 4 American Wigeon 10 Mallard 20 Green-winged Teal 25 Black-bellied Plover 5 Greater Yellowlegs 1 Dunlin 70+ Location: Montezuma NWR--Main Pool (wildlife drive) The Main Pool, of course, is covered in vegetation, but also in water, which makes a great hiding place for the ducks! It's hard to see them, but a cooperative adult BALD EAGLE flew over, toward the wildlife drive, putting up hundreds and hundreds of PINTAILS, RING-NECKED and other ducks. The Pintails dominated, however. Number of species: 21 Greater White-fronted Goose 1 Canada Goose - many flying American Black Duck X Mallard X Northern Shoveler X Northern Pintail X Green-winged Teal25 in wetland to right of first part of drive Ring-necked Duck X Greater/Lesser Scaup X Double-crested Cormorant a few Great Blue Heron X Bald Eagle 2 Northern Harrier 2 Red-tailed Hawk 4 American Coot X Black-bellied Plover 3 - in new mudflat just past the main pool Killdeer 2 Dunlin X - in new mudflat just past the main pool Ring-billed Gull X Herring Gull X Great Black-backed Gull X American Crow X Red-winged Blackbird X Location: Montezuma NWR--Knox-Marcellus Marsh Observation date: 10/30/10 Number of species: 11 Snow Goose 400 Canada Goose X Tundra Swan 30 Not certain these were all Tundra or Trumpeter or both - in distance. Most likely Tundra. Mallard X Common Merganser 5 Ruddy Duck 4 Great Blue Heron 8 Sandhill Crane 16 - our first EVER seen at Montezuma! I always thought it was a myth.. Dunlin X Ring-billed Gull X Herring Gull X Laura Stenzler l...@cornell.edu -- 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/ --
