It should’ve been sunrise when I looked out this morning, but the gray sky had
dropped far below the hills, then merged into snowfall, depositing a half inch
on everything, including the downtown pavement for the first time this year. I
hung out the bird feeder, brushed off part of the deck railing, and spread some
sunflower seeds on it for the Mourning Doves, but the food was quickly
obliterated in white. Then the flurry ceased, the clouds lifted a bit, and I
was able to scope the Cornell skyline: the flag on the tower at the Barton Hall
armory drooped for lack of wind.
Above Inlet Island, the gulls alternated between commuting south and wheeling
around overhead. Lately I’ve been wondering why suddenly there will be dozens
of gulls kettling, then just as suddenly, none. I haven’t figured it out. But a
couple of those high gray specks flew differently, with a more rapid wingbeat
and a more direct path southward. Binoculars showed them to have straighter
wings and a long neck: it was the right season and the right time of day for
Common Loons to migrate, but I didn’t expect them in a snow squall or calm
wind.
I looked around and found 2 more southbound loons. Then it got confusing. A
group of 10 loons were flying north, then turning west and out of my view over
my house. And then a different group of 13 more arrived southbound: 27 loons as
of 7:58am.
But by 8:01 there were 37 loons flying north, which I had to assume could
include all those I had seen previously. Still it was a new maximum.
At 8:03 I counted 23 southbound loons. Then 16 more southbound at 8:07. This
totaled 39, a couple more than my previous maximum.
But the southbound loons crossed paths with an even larger number of loons who
were flying north who suddenly circled in a cloud which I estimated at 80
strong, and they all moved off south. Soon after, 6 more loons flew south. So
my maximum count was 86 Common Loons, although it could have been 189.
What was going on? During this time the clouds had broken up a bit, and the
wind settled in from the north (Barton Hall’s flag said so). My guess, based on
my single observation point and no other nearby weather data, is that all the
loons I saw had started their migration from the north on the lake with north
winds there to encourage them. Then they outran their tailwind and met up with
a stalled air in the Ithaca area associated with low clouds, falling snow, and
maybe even headwinds. They plowed on awhile up Inlet Valley, but conditions
worsened, so they headed back north, even as more migrating loons came south,
also changed their minds, and went north, for the same reasons. But having come
back north to Ithaca, they found that the weather once more favored migration,
so they turned around again and went south, 86 strong this time.
That’s when I stopped looking for loons. I had seen an odd bird flying north.
Maybe it was a cormorant, because it was all dark and had a long neck, but the
neck looked extra long & narrow, and the tail looked very long. I wondered if
it was an Anhinga, so at 8:20 I walked toward Treman Marina, and never saw
anything more to suggest such a rarity before I had to head home. But over 20
more Common Loons went south overhead as I started.
To round out my migration notes, this evening around sunset I was again
watching gulls from my house, and I saw several high flocks of waterfowl, I
managed to get the scope on two southbound flocks of Northern Pintail (a new
yard bird), but did not get the scope on the later northbound flocks which
could have been the same birds.
- - Dave Nutter
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