On October 12 and 13, I led morning field trips for the Cayuga Bird Club at the Cornell community garden plots on Freese Road. We had an impressive turnout of at least 33 people, about evenly distributed between the two days.
Right as people were arriving on Saturday, we got distant but satisfying scope views of a MERLIN perched on a roadside utility wire, pulling red strands of flesh from an unidentified songbird. We then proceeded into the garden plots to look for sparrows. They were more difficult to find than usual, I’d say, but eventually we collectively turned up seven species -- SONG, SWAMP, SAVANNAH, CHIPPING, FIELD, WHITE-CROWNED (both juvenile and adult), and WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS. All morning long, we heard and saw a flock of RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS feeding on sunflower heads and reposing in the trees, including many males bearing rusty-edged fall feathers with obscured epaulets. We also saw many birds flying over, including seven EASTERN BLUEBIRDS, three somewhat late TREE SWALLOWS, two PILEATED WOODPECKERS, and probably two near-adult BALD EAGLES (one sighting to our south, one later coming in from the north). Toward the end of Saturday’s outing, we decided to cross over to the Liddell Lab pond area. Here we had a couple of fine capstones to the morning – a BLUE-HEADED VIREO foraging in the trees near the lab, and a presumed female COOPER’S HAWK heading south. As we gathered on Sunday, it was still below 40 degrees with a pall of fog over the plots. Then just as we started out, the sun rose brilliantly over the trees, the mist dissipated, and many birds woke up and got busy. We started over at the Liddell Lab side this time. Right on the edge of the roadside copse, we saw perhaps the most intriguing bird of the weekend -- a sparrow that appeared to have fine frontal streaks, buffy breastband, and finely patterned mantle like a Lincoln’s Sparrow, but a stout grayish bill with a rounded culmen and overall large size and long proportions of a Song Sparrow. Even with extended views, a good photograph by Raaj Bora, and some helpful input from others, I’m still not sure what that bird was. We advanced to the weedy pond edge, where we had some excellent sunlit views of two WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS and many SONG SPARROWS, plus a male BELTED KINGFISHER that flew in with a rattle from the east and perched on a branch hanging over the pond. Then we crossed back to the community plots. We found about the same mix of sparrows as on Saturday, this time with much greater ease and opportunity for leisurely comparison of field marks and sounds. Our airborne highlights were a bit different but arguably equally stirring – at least 80 TURKEY VULTURES rising at once on the warming air to our south, and the weekend’s only RED-TAILED HAWK, chased by two crows to the lone tree across the road. Leading up to both field trips, I pondered whether to take people over to the Bluegrass Lane area, where a cattail patch in the middle of the switchgrass field has perennially hosted sojourning Nelson’s Sparrows in early October, including this year. In past years, I have indeed added a Nelson’s quest to these sparrow walks. But alas, those repeated efforts have led to just one fleeting sighting for one person. I decided this year to be very direct about the low prospects for success (and possible higher success for solo searchers or smaller groups). On Saturday, maybe deterred also by the light rain, we collectively decided not to try. But on Sunday, we had a quorum and headed over. This time, a few participants (not I) had a brief but definitive NELSON’S SPARROW sighting -- and Raaj even got a good photo! Especially at sites like the garden plots and Bluegrass Lane field, with their narrow corridors and tall plants, birding in big groups can be a bit of a challenge. But not for the Cayuga Bird Club! All weekend long, people helped each other get onto birds, while also remaining cheerful and optimistic even when missing birds that others saw. I’m especially grateful to Diane Morton and Ken Kemphues, Bob McGuire, Dave Nutter, Jody Enck, Ann Mitchell, Ken Haas, and probably some others that I am forgetting at the moment -- the veteran trip leaders who shared information, lugged scopes, kept better lists than I did, and generally helped make the trips more orderly, enlightening and fun for me and everyone. Thanks to all for a great weekend! 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/ --
