On Saturday morning, I decided to pay my first-ever visit to Palmer Woods, next to the A-Lot at Cornell. I saw two BROWN THRASHERS singing on adjacent territories, one from a tree behind a house on Pleasant Grove Road and one right above the sledding slope. Then, alerted by its rising harmonica-chord call note, I found a HERMIT THRUSH skulking in the brush. This bird also issued a few partial songs - exquisite but very quiet, as if meant for only for the bird himself or for no one at all.
Students David Weber, Eric Sibbald, and Andrew Dreelin arrived, and together we spent about 15 minutes sifting through birds in the line of tamaracks. We found a couple of NASHVILLE WARBLERS and one BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER, but nothing else unusual. I was most surprised to see many White-throated Sparrows foraging like finches 25+ feet off the ground. Later, my son Tilden and I paid a very brief visit to the woods between the Arrowwood medical complex and Sapsucker Woods. As expected, we heard several EASTERN TOWHEES and had a fine view of one teed up on a bush and singing. The best surprise for us was finding both a BROAD-WINGED HAWK (heard only) and a RED-SHOULDERED HAWK (plainly seen twice flying through the treetops). Mark Chao --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com -- 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/ --
