Our Chemung Valley Audubon group was at Knox-Marcellus when all the Snow Geese took off from the mucklands. When we arrived at the Potato building, there was only one Snow Goose to be seen, the one that four young hunters carried back to their rendezvous point at the Potato Building. It looked like they were probably done for the day. I asked them what the bag limit was, and they said 25 per person per day, so they were short of their combined limit by 99 birds. It's going to take a long time to reduce the population by hunting if every time one gets shot, the other quarter million fly away. We saw Jay, Tim, and Hope at Sheldrake. I did forget to tell Jay one other unusual bird we saw was a Red-shouldered Hawk perched in one of the bushy trees far across the marsh due west of the visitors' center at the Refuge. -- Bill Ostrander _____
From: bounce-9181465-3518...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-9181465-3518...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Meena Haribal Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2011 8:28 PM To: cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Snow Geese and others Hi all, I went to north side of the lake, specially in search of Snow Geese. I was not disappointed. Along the Drake Road, I found some tom Turkeys under usual feeders. Center Road was quiet except for couple of Horned Larks. But as I was passing the road, I encountered my first flock of Snow Geese passing over me heading somewhere along 34 B. By the time I got the camera out, the birds were gone. But I considered that as a good omen for things to come ahead next. After a short detour on 90, I took my favorite Dixon road from Rafferty. Nothing special but many robins along the road, a flock of about 100 grackles with a few Red-winged mixed in and a Kestrel. At the end of the road I headed down to the lake, which comes out at Aurora Fire Station. Along the lake north, I stopped at Factory Pond. As Bill noted it was devoid of any ducks, but sleeping Screechie. At the same spot there was a very entertaining Starling doing all kinds of mimicry including Meadow Lark. So I spent some time with him trying my camera. Next, I stopped at Cayuga Village road just off of 90. Here I encountered huge flocks of Snow Geese flying overhead, which I found were heading to other side of the lake as the lake was mostly frozen around this area. There were many ducks but I did not spend time watching them as I was on an assignment, so shot some B rolls. I went to the water's edge at Cayuga park where I encountered Jay et al. Along Lake Road, I got a nice Common Goldeneye. Then headed to visitor Center for a short stop. Then I headed to Mucklands via East Road. From East Road, I could see huge flocks of Snow Geese in the muck. So I headed directly there. From both sides of the road there were thousands of Snow Geese and were just abut 300 mt from the road. I parked at the Potato building and hid behind the building and watched and took shots (not with guns but with a camera). I spent an hour or so when my battery died. When the whole group on the east side of the road rose, it made such a swishing noise, it was soothing and hypnotic and amazing. Some took off and other landed far side of the Muckland. As my battery had died, I wanted to recharge it, so decided to drive to Carncrass road. While my batter was charging on my car battery, I watched and took videos of Tundra Swans and their behaviors. I just watched the shots on my TV and so many amazing behaviors they seem to have. While I was there several thousands of Snow Geese went north of Carncrass road, to feed I think. But watching them overhead, made me feel dizzy as they made several kinds of patterns, V, U, M, N and Xs. I watched one X it had amazing movements, one group went west and other group east, but maintained that X for quite some time. I shot some part of it and watched it home, it was mind boggling as to how could they do that. As always when I watch these movements, I keep thinking who were the members of each groups, where they random or were they belonging to a specific clan? If they are clans, how do they keep in touch with each other? What is the cue to decide to take off? So many things I would like to learn, but I guess we may need a few more years if not decades to find answers to these questions with the modern technology. By the time I headed back, there were no Snow Geese in the Mucklands. Mucklands seems to be a location with very dynamic activities. Near Tschache channel, there were a few male Hooded Mergansers displaying to a couple of females. I stopped a little ahead and wanted to walk back without alarming them. But some how they sensed my intention, so they scooted. On the way back I took again back roads. Near Warrick and another town (forget name) Townline, I ran into another flock of Snow Geese feeding in the cornfield. I also ran across Greg and Susan at this point. From here I headed straight to lab to take care of something. As I was entering BTI parking lot, again I ran into a Snow Geese flock consisting about 400 birds. As I ran up, my colleague, told me that she has been watching Geese pass by most of the day. Happy birding everyone! Cheers Meena Meena Haribal Ithaca NY 14850 http://haribal.org/ http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ -- 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/ --
