I stopped after work to try and see the Pacific Loon. I didn't have any luck refinding it, but many Loons were in the distance. With the clouds it got very dark quickly. I did see my first Long-tailed Duck of the fall, at Sheldrake point exactly were she seems to hangout the last few years.
Gary ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dave Nutter [[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 6:07 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Pacific Loon, many Commons, retraction of Red-throated I saw lots of loons today. The PACIFIC LOON at Sheldrake I saw very well, initially quite close, and even took some adequate photos (available on request) showing the thin bill, slim head not much thicker than the neck giving a somewhat snaky appearance when extended, smooth light gray hood extending from the crown far down the nape, dark area extending from the lores and eye back over a restricted light patch on the face and forming a broad dark stripe down the side of the neck between the gray to the rear and white on the front of the neck, and narrow dark chinstrap. I was mostly viewing the Pacific Loon from the small gravelly park with a loop road at the very end of County Road 139 at the actual point formed by the delta of Sheldrake Creek. The bird was diving frequently and moving as were several COMMON LOONS in the same area. The Pacific worked its way north past the red channel marker, and was lost to view around the point for awhile. I refound it by going north on Wyers Point road a very short distance to the 90 degree bend to the left overlooking docks. After awhile the Pacific worked its way back south, and my original viewing site was better. The Pacific Loon preened some, and when I left at 1:30pm it was swimming away approximately northeast or slightly left of directly across the lake in the company of a couple of Common Loons. For those wishing to refind it, I recommend checking all vantages within a couple of miles of there. Assuming it's the same bird we've seen in the area for several years now, it's been seen regularly from 153 & 141 to the bay north of Sheldrake Point and occasionally from the east side at Long Point and elsewhere. Earlier I had talked to Stuart Krasnoff a couple times. He called mid-morning about a possible Red-throated Loon showing lots of white on the face. It was far northwest from Stewart Park and headed north. He sent me some photos which I looked at this evening, but they are too small/distant for me to ID. It was late morning before I got to the lake, and I found no loons from a couple of private docks along the west shore to which I have access. When I got to the Ithaca Yacht Club I found my first 3 loons, fairly far to the northeast across the lake in a bit of heat shimmer. When I first saw them during a binocular scan their bright white breast/neck/face caught my eye and I expected the scope to reveal gulls. I spent a long time looking at them as they interacted. A Herring Gull that was next to them for awhile seemed similar in overall length and with a larger head (Sibley lists both species' length as 25"). At times I could see the dark eye of a loon within the white of the face. I did not see any blockiness or angularity to the heads, nor a distinct forehead. The whitish face seemed to extend up through the lores. However the crown was definitely dark and substantial, and when they faced away no white showed at all. Although the front of the neck was bright white I could see some irregularity in the pattern of white foreneck and dark hindneck, especially near the base, not just a straight line dividing the two. The bills appeared somewhat small and pointed slightly above horizontal. I could see some white speckling on the back. After staring a long time and consulting Sibley, I called Stuart and he correctly reported my assessment that I was seeing 3 Red-throated Loons. When I got to the Sheldrake area and made my first stop at the corner of County Roads 141 & 153, I saw scores of distant loons, many appearing similarly bright white on the face and fairly small-billed, some which were closer and were irrefutably COMMON LOONS, and some in the mid-distance whose identity seemed to shift with the direction they faced. Head-on they looked very white-faced, but from the side or the rear they no longer looked like Red-throated Loon candidates. On my return trip I stopped again at the Ithaca Yacht Club but this time I found about a dozen COMMON LOONS which shared some of the characteristics I had seen on the first 3 birds. I now suspect that I may have been mistaken in my ID of Red-throated Loons. Perhaps the heat shimmer and the dark background may have made the dark parts of the head and the bill appear smaller, while the light parts appeared larger. Maybe they were Red-throated, but now my doubts outweigh my confidence. I think perhaps Red-throated Loons, which I've never seen more than one at a time, would have appeared snakier with less distinct of a head, and I might have had more trouble seeing the bill at all in that situation of mediocre light, distance and moderate heat shimmer. I got as far north as Bridgeport, the community near the northwest corner of Cayuga Lake in the Town of Seneca Falls. From the boat ramp of Cayuga Lake State Park I saw about a dozen COMMON GOLDENEYES and a female RED-BREASTED MERGANSER to the east, and several mixed flocks, totalling several hundred ducks to the north, mainly LESSER SCAUP and RUDDY DUCKS with some GREATER SCAUP and a couple AMERICAN WIGEON. Also scattered about the north half of the lake were more COMMON LOONS, BUFFLEHEADS, MALLARD, AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS, a handful of PIED-BILLED GREBES and the 3 usual gulls. --Dave Nutter On Thursday, November 05, 2009, at 09:45AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > pacific loon close to sheldrake point park 1240 5 nov -dave nutter > >-- > >Cayugabirds-L List Info: >http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME >http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES > >Archives: >1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html >2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html > >Please submit your observations to eBird: >http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > >-- > > -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
