I looked for birds around the Wilson Trail North, the Woodleton Boardwalk, and the road in Sapsucker Woods on Saturday morning. Here are some highlights.
* YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER along the road, about 30 meters north of the gated trailheads. Suan Yong and I had a nice 20-second view of this bird in angled morning sunlight, before the flycatcher was chased away by a first-year male AMERICAN REDSTART. Suan remarked aptly that the flycatcher had "female goldfinch colors." * A singing BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER not far from this flycatcher, two TENNESSEE WARBLERS by the East Trail gate, and another redstart singing deep in the woods by the Severinghaus Trail. * Territorial NORTHERN WATERTHRUSHES along the Woodleton Boardwalk as usual, plus another in the swampy patch north of the building. This latter waterthrush, plus the warblers mentioned above, were the only passage migrant warblers I found today. * A pair of OVENBIRDS about to copulate between the East Trail gate and the Woodleton Boardwalk, before they saw me and decided to try somewhere else. * Near these Ovenbirds, Suan found a Catharus thrush, which I never saw. His description perfectly matches GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH. I can think of no better date or place to find this species around Ithaca. * A NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD, first found by Linda Orkin and her group, near the swallow boxes on the parking-lot knoll. This was only the fourth or fifth mockingbird I've ever seen in Sapsucker Woods. Mark -- 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/ --
