I had a distant view of what is likely a Northern Shrike at Cayuga Vista Dr Lansing about 1130am today. When I pulled up, the candidate was on one of the low trees near the road, but flew down and into the hedge just as I brought my binocs up so I got nothing that time. I waited a while, got out, scanned, then re-found what I thought was the same bird but further back this time. It was just out of reach of my vision to resolve the bill hook and I thought the tail seemed a bit longer than I thought a shrike out to have but it was wagging it while perched in one of the low trees by the roadside hedge south of the road across from that truck shop business. It was white underneath and blue-gray on top, but I could not resolve the face mask at the distance it was perched from me. I am confident this was not a Mockingbird though they were in this hedge last year as well (it was not that long a tail and the colors were clear to me).
So those going by should take a look and see if you can get a definite NOSH. Myers was brisk, MALLARDs and RING-BILLED GULLs aplenty and couple other commoners. I was pretty surprised to see that Lansing has apparently felled ALL the big willows in Myers Park very recently. Maybe they were old enough to be widow-maker hazards? Ladoga had a nearby raft of mostly REDHEADs with some Scaup (pretty sure they were Lesser but the raft was bobbing on 2’ waves so I’ll leave it at sp.). 7 LONG-TAILED DUCKs flew over the raft, circled for good views then settled on the choppy water and disappeared from sight. I also saw 2 AMERICAN WIDGEON in the Redhead raft. ______________________ Chris Pelkie Research Analyst Bioacoustics Research Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 -- 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/ --
