Susie & I jaunted up the east side of Cayuga Lake and back today. We had a good visit with Fritzie and Becky in Union Springs where a large raft of mostly Aythya was close in. No ice to speak of. Fritzie seems to think that I have a larger scope and can therefore see more. It's not the scope but the eyeball looking through it that's important. For example, an early stop for Susie & I was the Aurora boathouse. I found 9 grebes, and although way out, felt sure they were all HORNED GREBES. A flicker (not the bird) of doubt remained, so we stopped at the boathouse again on our way south later. Because of sun angle, I could see only silhouettes, but this time one EARED GREBE stood out clearly from 8 HORNED GREBES. One of the horned grebes twice lunged aggressively at the eared to keep it away from the group. This was new to me as previous observations over the years led me to believe they all got along peacefully.
Another interesting encounter occurred at the Potato Bldg. in the Montezuma Mucklands. The area was devoid of birds except for a small flock of STARLINGS flitting about. As we got ready to leave, we noticed two large birds flying towards us from the NW. They were the pair of adult BALD EAGLES from the nest in the hedgerow in that direction. Right over the building, they began to soar together in tight circles. They made 12-14 revolutions usually with an eagle on opposite sides of the circle. The circle diameter varied somewhat, but was about 50'. This is supposedly courtship behavior. We both heard one series of chittering sounds, but this could have come from the starlings, which were imitating other bird songs. Interestingly to me was that both birds, in their gyrations, held the wings flat out in normal soaring position about 50% of the time. In the other 50%, the wings were held in an exaggerated dihedral, almost like the angle one would see with turkey vultures. We're wondering if this dihedral position has some aerodynamic function related to the tight circling, or if it is another aspect of courtship behavior? Steve & Susie Fast Brooktondale -- 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/ --
