Hi folks, John saw, without binox, a light colored duck on the Factory St. pond when he went for mail this morning. We went back down & looked at the bird with the scope. It was rather cream colored all over with some medium tan markings on shoulders & wing tips. I say that rather hesitantly because the bird had it's head tucked under the wing & it was angled away from me so determining where the darker markings were was not particularly easy. I believe from what I could see that the bill was a light color.
The duck was in a group of about 10 mallards over under the tree whose limbs hang in the water on the north edge of the pond so I suspect from the shape that it is a mallard altho' I couldn't see any curled feathers, as a male would have had, under the tail. Tried to call Dave Nutter ... (only one whose phone number I had along with me but got no answer) ... to have him post it in case any other birders were up this way. Kathy Strickland was birding around the lake with Lynn from Roch. but I couldn't get any reply from her on her cell phone . Soooo. Maybe someone else will see it. Screechie had put in an appearance between the time John was there & the time we went back down. Such a cutie!! The large rafts of Redheads were spread out down along the lake between Gully Rd & the Aurora Post office. Canadas & Goldeneye were in the rafts. Saw about 6 turkeys just up Poplar Ridge Rd. 1/2 mi. & then another 24 over along the woods east of Dixon Rd.. Nasty day to be out of the car or house. Thermometer in the car registered 14 degrees but the wind chill felt like -14 & snow was blowing north to south across the roads. I'm glad I'm not down in my birthplace in the mountains west of Harrisonburg, VA nor at John's in Westminster, MD. today. The last few yrs. both places have had more snow & colder weather than we've had here. Yep! As I said before, I'll take beautiful NY. Keep warm. Fritzie Blizzard -- 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/ --
