Up till yesterday (3/7) with the freezing temps. the miles-long ice sheet in front of my house at Lansing Station Rd. had increased in size since I reported its extent on Thurs 3/5. With today's temps in mid 30s the ice sheet has melted back about 100' along the shore here and about 150' out in the middle. Ice is much thicker by shore & also by beaches like mine with a solid crib dock, ice is piled up in big heaps against the beach & structures. Some pieces of ice look to be 4" thick.
The waterfowl (Aythyas, C , H, & R Mergs, Tundra Swans, Mallards, Black Ducks, CA Geese, & gulls) have been following the retreating ice edges all day & I hope they are finding more to eat. An immature BALD EAGLE sat in a tree watching them for awhile, but it was being closely harassed by 4 of "my" 6 A. CROWS & flew north. I had hoped the eagle would drop down to the floating ice chunks at the ice edge to get one of the 7 dead birds I saw floating there & get an easy meal. Yesterday I also saw a dead duck on the ice at the Lans. Town marina at Myers Park. (There was a large area of open water surrounded by ice offshore by Myers). i have also encountered several ducks in various roads near the lake. They fly away weakly as I drive carefully around them. These weather/ice conditions have been hard on the wildlife. Looking north, it appears that a big area of liquid water has opened up around the Power Plant since I saw most of it frozen over on Thursday. Sent from my iPhone Donna Scott -- 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/ --
