This morning, I hit the Hawthorn Orchard in East Ithaca around 6:30am and I birded there quite thoroughly until about 11:30am. I was joined for a period of time by Larry and Sara Jane Hymes and Stuart Krasnoff. Had the pleasure of meeting some fellow birders while there today. I met Dana and Mamie Weed, Jan Hesbon, Dave Streater, and Jenny Feng, plus saw a few whose names I didn't get. Hope you all had a good day birding there!
The highlight today was the phenomenal number of TENNESSEE WARBLERS present in and around the Hawthorn Orchard. A rough estimate would place the total number of birds (males and females) at around 30-35 individuals! Another highlight was the discovery of a GREEN HERON pair building a nest along the West side of the Hawthorn Orchard. The Hawthorn Orchard blossoms are beginning to open at the tree crowns. Treetops that have been exposed to ample sunlight and warmth are clearly showing signs of excellent insect growth. Toward the end of the morning, a very large flock of Tennessee Warblers and other species were actively engorging themselves on little tiny insect larvae, each being expertly removed by these warblers from each hawthorn leaf cluster. This is a great sign for the days to come. Here's my rough list of birds for the day: 2 GREEN HERONS (nest building, West side) 1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2 Least Flycatchers 1 Great Crested Flycatcher 1 YELLOW-THROATED VIREO (single phrase heard) 1 Warbling Vireo (South knoll area, West of South ball field) 5-6+ Red-eyed Vireos (clearly migrants foraging in the Hawthorn Orchard) 1-2 SWAINSON'S THRUSHES (one foraging in the tops of the hawthorn trees on the North side, another whisper-singing from middle of Hawthorn Orchard, later) 1 WOOD THRUSH (apparently holding territory near SW corner of Hawthorn Orchard) 30-35+ **TENNESSEE WARBLERS** (this is an all-time high for this location, they were audibly singing and calling and visible everywhere you looked) 2-3 Nashville Warblers 5-6 Yellow Warblers 3-4 Chestnut-sided Warblers 12-15 Magnolia Warblers 2-3 BLACKBURNIAN WARBLERS (two at one location, one earlier in the morning) 3-5 BAY-BREASTED WARBLERS (two males at one location - singing, one female at another, two males again later) 2-3 Blackpoll Warblers (singing softly, actively foraging) 3-4 American Redstarts 5-6 Common Yellowthroats (seemed less noticeable today) 1-2 WILSON'S WARBLERS (think this could have been the same bird circling around the perimeter) 1 CANADA WARBLER (female - in the woods near the hydrant at the NW corner; relocated two additional times, once there and once at the SSW side; very mobile) 1 FIELD SPARROW (heard singing near South knoll) 1 SAVANNAH SPARROW (heard singing South of South ball field) 1-2 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks 6-7 INDIGO BUNTINGS (multiple singing males, 1 female, plus flyovers) 2-3 Eastern Meadowlarks (heard singing from field South of South ball field) 5-6 Baltimore Orioles 10-12 American Goldfinches Good birding! Sincerely, Chris T-H -- Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes TARU Product Line Manager and Field Applications Engineer Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850 W: 607-254-2418 M: 607-351-5740 F: 607-254-1132 http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp -- 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/ --
