Hi all, another belated report on Sunday morning birding.
I started pre-6 am at Myer's Point hoping for some late moving shorebirds or terns, but nothing there of interest. I then headed up Salmon Creek Rd., stopping to walk most of the stretch along the FLLT Cerulean Warbler preserve and poke a little ways up some side creeks. I confirmed another season with zero Cerulean Warblers along this stretch -- there were a dozen or more here (and 40+ males in the entire creek drainage) in the mid 1990s, all of which disappeared for unknown reasons (Chris T-H's paving theory aside). Also now Acacian Flycatchers I could find. There was a close loud-singing MOURNING WARBLER along the road, and all of the other common breeders seemed to be in their usual numbers and places. I followed Salmon Creek and Indian FIelds Rd all the way north to Rt. 90 and then headed west towards Summerhill. As I descended a forested stretch towards Locke, I remembered a tip from Bill Evans from 15+ years ago and slowed down to listen out the window. Sure enough a loud ACADIAN FLYCATCHER sang from the north side of the road where the forested creek crosses under the road. I believe this is Hemlock Creek? and is outside the Cayuga Lake Basin, for those who care. I then continued on to Lick St. in Summerhill and found Stuart Krasnoff (and Carl Steckler?) waiting for the CLAY-COLORED SPARROW to appear in the christmas tree farm north of Rt. 90. Stuart and I walked up and down Lick St. and a loop through the christmas tree farm (with permission) without any luck for an hour or so. Then after walking further north to the very far north end of the plantation (almost to where the tall spruces start), the CLAY-COLORED appeared briefly and silently in a shrub on the east side of Lick St. We got a brief look at the grayer overall color (no reddish anywhere) compared to numerous Chipping and Field Sparrows), the gray collar, and the white racing stripe through the brown crown. The bird flew back into the denser shrubs to the northeast. We also had a nice adult RED-SHOULDERED HAWK calling and circling, a fly-by YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO, and other usual local birds. Another largish hawk that dove across the road gave the impression of a non-adult N. Goshawk, but could not confirm. Yet another bird that "got away" was a flock of 5 smallish birds that were flying north over the spruces -- they were similar in size to Cedar Waxwings (which are commonly flying over these days), but the flight seemed more undulating and at least a couple of the birds appeared to have goldish yellow rumps contrasting with darker backs -- my guess is that these were Red Crossbill, but again couldn't confirm. I then did a quick walking and slow-driving "transect" along Hoag Rd. between Lick and Salt -- I had 11 species of warbler along this stretch, including 4 MOURNING WARBLERS and 1 CANADA WARBLER. Also most of the other "northern" forest breeders including an adult SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, HERMIT THRUSHES, RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, etc. KEN Ken Rosenberg Conservation Science Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 607-254-2412 607-342-4594 (cell) k...@cornell.edu<mailto:k...@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/ --
