[cayugabirds-l] Union Springs 2 Jan. 2019

[John and Fritzie Blizzard]

This afternoon as I was watching a white-winged scoter all by itself on 
Cayuga Lake, out from the Harbor Marina at the bottom of Basin St., 2 
juvenile bald eagles came into view from near Carr's Cove, south of the 
village & headed north towards me.


They did their rolling, chasing fight routine for a matter of minutes, 
eventually being directly over me before flying NE & over Factory St. 
pond & out of sight.  Soon only one came back & flew south over the 
lake. Becky & I have been seeing baldies more often this past summer & 
fall, including an adult over Plaster Point on Fri., 28 Dec..


Prior to being at the marina I had been at Fontenac Park boat launch 
watching the scoter when I noticed many ducks  approaching from the 
north. Soon thousands of Aythya were flying by. I didn't have time to 
chase them southward but suspect they landed between Aurora & Dean's Cove.


While at the boat launch I had watched another "loner" bird that flew 
only because of a boater coming in. It sat high in the calm water with 
the neck straight & head erect.  It had quite a lot of light color on 
the side of its face/head. When it flew it ran on the water before 
rising into the air.  I would like to make this into a red-necked grebe 
but I didn't see other colors clearly. As its feet raised from the water 
the body seem rounder than those of ducks. It flew quickly westward but 
not very high.


Lake-water level at Frontenac Park is finally back to winter normal but 
surprisingly still high at Mud Lock & northwards, with water over the 
banks in the river & canal. Canal level in Seneca Falls is high altho' 
Van Cleef Lake looks fairly normal. There, we found 100s of Canadas on 
29 Dec..  Becky & I are amazed to find, quite unlike previous yrs.,  no 
ducks, geese or swans between Cayuga & Mud Lock except for a few ducks 
very close to the eastern shoreline just north of Cayuga village.  We 
didn't go out along the RR tracks to look over the lake towards Cayuga 
Lake SP where we have usually seen countless thousands of Aythya.


We didn't find any snowy or short-earred owls or white deer in our 
travels on the 29th but did see several red-tailed hawks & a harrier. 
Except for the usual feeder birds, the   many crows & the large nos. of 
Canadas flying over & plague of fuzzy-tailed rats, we notice the lack of 
birds elsewhere. She has a lone pine siskin hanging around her feeders.


The greatest treat on 30 Dec. was seeing a magnificent young, red fox 
that came down the bank behind the house & then went back up, probably 
to one of the many woodchuck holes in the hedgerow or to an old barn 
across the field.


Happy birdy new year to all.

Fritzie



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Re: [cayugabirds-l] 2019 Ithaca Christmas Bird Count results

[Paul Anderson]

Thank you Dave for that summary. Let me add a few more details that may 
be interesting for everyone to hear.

We had 159 participants, well above our 10-year average of 131. Notably, 
we had 125 last year when we broke many records.

We had record low counts of several species that have been seen every 
year (10-yr average shown):

*Species  High  Low   Ave  2019*
Black Duck    422   18    58 5
Mallard  3098  512  1369   468
Am Tree Sparrow  1302   79   389    39
House Sparrow    2161  376   709   308

The total number of individuals was 20260, way down from the 10-year 
average of 38463. The most recent year with fewer was 2004 when the 
count was 19314. Interestingly, prior to 1994 almost all the counts were 
less than 20,000 and only one year since then have they been fewer than 
20,000.

-Paul

On 1/2/2019 10:43 AM, Dave Nutter wrote:
> Despite a high turnout of birders to count Ithaca-area birds, the 
> number of species found and the number of individual birds counted 
> were both substantially down.
>
> By my unofficial count (see below) there were 85 species observed 
> within the count circle during count day (unless I screwed up as I 
> transferred to the new checklist sequence) plus 2 Count Week species 
> from the 3 days prior, and another already today for the 3 days after 
> the count. There are many opportunities on 2, 3, & 4 January to add 
> species which we have often seen in past years, including Snow Goose, 
> any swans, many ducks, Pied-billed Grebe,either loon, several gulls, 
> Horned Lark, Lapland Longspur, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, to name a 
> few.
>
> Although there were no new species added to the count list this year, 
> a few surprises stand out: a Short-eared Owl at Stewart Park and a 
> Northern Goshawk at the Farmers’ market, both found by Ken Rosenberg, 
> and not one, but two Eastern Phoebes (unprecedented!). I had found the 
> one near the railroad behind Agway on 2 Dec, but when Stuart Krasnoff 
> found one near Treman Marina more recently, I assumed the first one 
> had moved, since I saw no Phoebe behind Agway on Saturday but did see 
> one along the lakeshore at Treman this past Sunday. Then one was found 
> at each location on the count!
>
> Despite the high Phoebe count and 18 Bald Eagle reports (which need to 
> be examined for duplication) many species had numbers which were 
> significantly below average.
>
> Why the low count? There’s much speculation. The high winds made it 
> hard to hear birds, and kept them from perching high. The warm weather 
> meant the birds did not need to eat a lot, go to concentrated food 
> sources, or move a lot seeking food. The lack of snow meant that 
> natural food sources were not covered and that birds could stay 
> camouflaged. The lack of ice at the north end of the lake and at 
> Montezuma meant that waterfowl were not forced to the south end of the 
> lake to find shallow water to feed in. The high winds caused whitecaps 
> and rollers on Cayuga Lake as well as making it hard to keep scopes 
> and people aligned. But the weather that day doesn’t seem to be the 
> whole story. Birds seemed generally scarce to me over the past several 
> days both on land, and on the lake when viewing conditions were ideal. 
> An early start to shooting season meant that waterfowl had been 
> disturbed more thoroughly and moved out. And there may be other 
> factors we just don’t know yet. Fitz says Audubon plans to analyze CBC 
> data taking count-day weather into account to see if trends show up.
>
> - - Dave Nutter
>
> CBC results
>
>
> CACGOO0101Ken RosenbergNewman Golf/Jetty Wds, Ithaca
>
> CANGOO 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> MALLAR 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> AMKDUC 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> REDHEA 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> 05
>
> RINDUC 0101Kevin McGowansouth of Myers, Lansing
>
> GRESCA 0101Ken Rosenberg?LOC?
>
> LESSCA 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> LOTDUC 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> BUFFLE 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> 10
>
> COMGOL 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> HOOMER 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> COMMER 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> REBMER 0101Kevin McGowanE Shore Pk, Ithaca
>
> RUFGRO 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> 15
>
> WILTUR 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> HORGRE 0101Scott Sutcliffe et alLOC?
>
> ROCPIG 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> MOUDOV 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> AMECOO 0101Kevin McGowanE side of Cayuga L, sev loc
>
> 20
>
> RIBGUL 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> HERGUL 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> GBBGUL 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> DOCCOR 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> GTUHER 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> 25
>
> TURVUL 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> NORHAR 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> SHSHAW 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> COOHAW 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> NORGOS 0101Ken RosenbergFarmers’ Market, Ithaca
>
> 30
>
> BALEAG 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> RETHAW 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> ROLHAW 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> EASOWL 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> GTHOWL 0101Ithaca CBCIthaca CBC
>
> 35
>
> 

[cayugabirds-l] Snow Geese heading toward count circle

[Joshua Snodgrass]

Flock of about 800 just passed overhead in Interlaken heading south

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Re: [cayugabirds-l] 2019 Ithaca Christmas Bird Count results

[Dave Nutter]

Sorry, I think that’s 84 for the count plus at least 3 for the week.

- - Dave Nutter

> On Jan 2, 2019, at 10:43 AM, Dave Nutter  wrote:
> 
> Despite a high turnout of birders to count Ithaca-area birds, the number of 
> species found and the number of individual birds counted were both 
> substantially down. 
> 
> By my unofficial count (see below) there were 85 species observed within the 
> count circle during count day (unless I screwed up as I transferred to the 
> new checklist sequence) plus 2 Count Week species from the 3 days prior, and 
> another already today for the 3 days after the count. There are many 
> opportunities on 2, 3, & 4 January to add species which we have often seen in 
> past years, including Snow Goose, any swans, many ducks, Pied-billed Grebe, 
> either loon, several gulls, Horned Lark, Lapland Longspur, and Yellow-bellied 
> Sapsucker, to name a few. 
> 
> Although there were no new species added to the count list this year, a few 
> surprises stand out: a Short-eared Owl at Stewart Park and a Northern Goshawk 
> at the Farmers’ market, both found by Ken Rosenberg, and not one, but two 
> Eastern Phoebes (unprecedented!). I had found the one near the railroad 
> behind Agway on 2 Dec, but when Stuart Krasnoff found one near Treman Marina 
> more recently, I assumed the first one had moved, since I saw no Phoebe 
> behind Agway on Saturday but did see one along the lakeshore at Treman this 
> past Sunday. Then one was found at each location on the count! 
> 
> Despite the high Phoebe count and 18 Bald Eagle reports (which need to be 
> examined for duplication) many species had numbers which were significantly 
> below average. 
> 
> Why the low count? There’s much speculation. The high winds made it hard to 
> hear birds, and kept them from perching high. The warm weather meant the 
> birds did not need to eat a lot, go to concentrated food sources, or move a 
> lot seeking food. The lack of snow meant that natural food sources were not 
> covered and that birds could stay camouflaged. The lack of ice at the north 
> end of the lake and at Montezuma meant that waterfowl were not forced to the 
> south end of the lake to find shallow water to feed in. The high winds caused 
> whitecaps and rollers on Cayuga Lake as well as making it hard to keep scopes 
> and people aligned. But the weather that day doesn’t seem to be the whole 
> story. Birds seemed generally scarce to me over the past several days both on 
> land, and on the lake when viewing conditions were ideal. An early start to 
> shooting season meant that waterfowl had been disturbed more thoroughly and 
> moved out. And there may be other factors we just don’t know yet. Fitz says 
> Audubon plans to analyze CBC data taking count-day weather into account to 
> see if trends show up. 
> 
> - - Dave Nutter
> 
> CBC results
> 
> CACGOO0101Ken Rosenberg   Newman Golf/Jetty Wds, Ithaca
> CANGOO0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> MALLAR0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> AMKDUC0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> REDHEA0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> 05
> RINDUC0101Kevin McGowan   south of Myers, Lansing
> GRESCA0101Ken Rosenberg?  LOC? 
> LESSCA0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> LOTDUC0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> BUFFLE0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> 10
> COMGOL0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> HOOMER0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> COMMER0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> REBMER0101Kevin McGowan   E Shore Pk, Ithaca
> RUFGRO0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> 15
> WILTUR0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> HORGRE0101Scott Sutcliffe et al   LOC?
> ROCPIG0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> MOUDOV0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> AMECOO0101Kevin McGowan   E side of Cayuga L, sev loc
> 20
> RIBGUL0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> HERGUL0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC 
> GBBGUL0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> DOCCOR0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC 
> GTUHER0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC 
> 25
> TURVUL0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> NORHAR0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> SHSHAW0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> COOHAW0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> NORGOS0101Ken Rosenberg   Farmers’ Market, Ithaca
> 30
> BALEAG0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> RETHAW0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> ROLHAW0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> EASOWL0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> GTHOWL0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
> 35
> BRDOWL0101John FitzpatrickE of Thomas Rd, Dryden  
> SHEOWL0101Ken Rosenberg   Swan Pond, Stewart Pk, Ithaca
> NSWOWL0101Gary Kohlenberg south Monkey Run, Dryden 
> BELKIN0101Ithaca CBC 

[cayugabirds-l] 2019 Ithaca Christmas Bird Count results

[Dave Nutter]

Despite a high turnout of birders to count Ithaca-area birds, the number of 
species found and the number of individual birds counted were both 
substantially down. 

By my unofficial count (see below) there were 85 species observed within the 
count circle during count day (unless I screwed up as I transferred to the new 
checklist sequence) plus 2 Count Week species from the 3 days prior, and 
another already today for the 3 days after the count. There are many 
opportunities on 2, 3, & 4 January to add species which we have often seen in 
past years, including Snow Goose, any swans, many ducks, Pied-billed Grebe, 
either loon, several gulls, Horned Lark, Lapland Longspur, and Yellow-bellied 
Sapsucker, to name a few. 

Although there were no new species added to the count list this year, a few 
surprises stand out: a Short-eared Owl at Stewart Park and a Northern Goshawk 
at the Farmers’ market, both found by Ken Rosenberg, and not one, but two 
Eastern Phoebes (unprecedented!). I had found the one near the railroad behind 
Agway on 2 Dec, but when Stuart Krasnoff found one near Treman Marina more 
recently, I assumed the first one had moved, since I saw no Phoebe behind Agway 
on Saturday but did see one along the lakeshore at Treman this past Sunday. 
Then one was found at each location on the count! 

Despite the high Phoebe count and 18 Bald Eagle reports (which need to be 
examined for duplication) many species had numbers which were significantly 
below average. 

Why the low count? There’s much speculation. The high winds made it hard to 
hear birds, and kept them from perching high. The warm weather meant the birds 
did not need to eat a lot, go to concentrated food sources, or move a lot 
seeking food. The lack of snow meant that natural food sources were not covered 
and that birds could stay camouflaged. The lack of ice at the north end of the 
lake and at Montezuma meant that waterfowl were not forced to the south end of 
the lake to find shallow water to feed in. The high winds caused whitecaps and 
rollers on Cayuga Lake as well as making it hard to keep scopes and people 
aligned. But the weather that day doesn’t seem to be the whole story. Birds 
seemed generally scarce to me over the past several days both on land, and on 
the lake when viewing conditions were ideal. An early start to shooting season 
meant that waterfowl had been disturbed more thoroughly and moved out. And 
there may be other factors we just don’t know yet. Fitz says Audubon plans to 
analyze CBC data taking count-day weather into account to see if trends show 
up. 

- - Dave Nutter

CBC results

CACGOO  0101Ken Rosenberg   Newman Golf/Jetty Wds, Ithaca
CANGOO  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
MALLAR  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
AMKDUC  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
REDHEA  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
05
RINDUC  0101Kevin McGowan   south of Myers, Lansing
GRESCA  0101Ken Rosenberg?  LOC? 
LESSCA  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
LOTDUC  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
BUFFLE  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
10
COMGOL  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
HOOMER  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
COMMER  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
REBMER  0101Kevin McGowan   E Shore Pk, Ithaca
RUFGRO  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
15
WILTUR  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
HORGRE  0101Scott Sutcliffe et al   LOC?
ROCPIG  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
MOUDOV  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
AMECOO  0101Kevin McGowan   E side of Cayuga L, sev loc
20
RIBGUL  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
HERGUL  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC 
GBBGUL  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
DOCCOR  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC 
GTUHER  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC 
25
TURVUL  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
NORHAR  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
SHSHAW  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
COOHAW  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
NORGOS  0101Ken Rosenberg   Farmers’ Market, Ithaca
30
BALEAG  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
RETHAW  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
ROLHAW  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
EASOWL  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
GTHOWL  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
35
BRDOWL  0101John FitzpatrickE of Thomas Rd, Dryden  
SHEOWL  0101Ken Rosenberg   Swan Pond, Stewart Pk, Ithaca
NSWOWL  0101Gary Kohlenberg south Monkey Run, Dryden 
BELKIN  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
REBWOO  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
40
DOWWOO  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
HAIWOO  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
NORFLI  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
PILWOO  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
AMEKES  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
45
MERLIN  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
EASPHO  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
NORSHR  0101Kelly BranchHurd Rd, Dryden
BLUJAY  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
AMECRO  0101Ithaca CBC  Ithaca CBC
50
FISCRO  0101.(ask Phil McNeil)  .(Area 

Re: [cayugabirds-l] peregrine falcon

[Asher Hockett]

That makes it a count week bird!

On Wed, Jan 2, 2019 at 8:19 AM Jody Enck  wrote:

> A peregrine falcon swooped by low and fast between Caldwell Hall and
> Martha van Rennselaer Hall on the Cornell campus at about 8:10 this
> morning.  It was chasing another bird unsuccessfully as it was navigating a
> slalom course among the construction equipment.
>
> Jody
>
>
> Jody W. Enck, PhD
> Conservation Social Scientist, and
> Founder of the Sister Bird Club Network
> 607-379-5940
> --
> *Cayugabirds-L List Info:*
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> Rules and Information 
> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave
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>


-- 
asher

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[cayugabirds-l] peregrine falcon

[Jody Enck]

A peregrine falcon swooped by low and fast between Caldwell Hall and Martha
van Rennselaer Hall on the Cornell campus at about 8:10 this morning.  It
was chasing another bird unsuccessfully as it was navigating a slalom
course among the construction equipment.

Jody


Jody W. Enck, PhD
Conservation Social Scientist, and
Founder of the Sister Bird Club Network
607-379-5940

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