Elementary school is out for many grades in Ithaca today because teachers are busy correcting state exams. Therefore I decided to orchestrate a morning birding outing to the Roy H. Park Preserve in Dryden for my kids and three of their friends. One parent of each friend joined us.
En route to the preserve, we all saw a female WILD TURKEY crossing Freese Road and a BOBOLINK and some Savannah Sparrows near the intersection of Mineah and Mt. Pleasant Roads. At the Park Preserve, we found at least four PRAIRIE WARBLERS, including an apparent breeding pair that offered easy and dazzling views (maybe life-altering for one mom), a second conspicuous male, and a third singing male that we didn't see. We found a subset of the preserve's other breeding species -- MAGNOLIA WARBLER (probably my son's life sighting), CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER, BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER, YELLOW WARBLER, YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, NASHVILLE WARBLER, CANADA WARBLER, OVENBIRD, BLUE-HEADED VIREO, a singing WINTER WREN in the ravine, and two SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS (one circled high while the other marauded through the treetops, to the considerable alarm of nearby songbirds). Mark Chao -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
