Our crew of counters has turned up some exciting birds in Area IX of the Ithaca CBC circle (Lansing) so far today.
* SAVANNAH SPARROW found by Bob Horn and seen by several others, including me, in the brush at the northeast corner of the intersection of East Shore Drive and Water Wagon Road. This bird had a pink bill, yellow face especially at the front of the eyebrow stripe, crisp dark frontal streaks without a central spot. * Approximately six SNOW BUNTINGS found by Bob and Joan Horn along Water Wagon Road. * MERLIN along Benson Road at the first house south of Route 34B. This brown-backed bird spent several minutes in the first tree south of this house right along the road, circled and returned once, then flew east across the road and perched again in the line of trees at the back of an open field. * Two ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS found by Jill Vaughan and Marianne Ludwigsen along Route 34B across from the north end of Benson Road. * BARRED OWL seen by Donna Scott along Van Ostrand Road at 5:35 AM. * NORTHERN HARRIER seen from Snyder Road, circling far to the south, surely out of Area IX (hard to tell if it was over the Freese/Hanshaw area or even farther to the south in Area IV). All this in a few hours, plus the shrike that Kevin found and Lee Ann reported. Not bad for a cold, windy morning! Mark Chao -- 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/ --
