Carolyn Sedgwick, Maria Stager, Matt Medler, Tom Johnson, and I spent today braving the chilly southerly breeze to circle the lake in search of birds. We started off at Stewart Park, where 2 "RICHARDSON'S" CACKLING GEESE performed at close range with the other waterfowl right along the shore. After a short time, 2 BRANT flew in from up the lake and landed in the same area. Drake Road was surprisingly productive, highlighted by the local pigmentally-challenged "BROWN" AMERICAN CROW, a late BLUE-HEADED VIREO, and a late GRAY CATBIRD. Myers Point was slow, except for a single female-plumaged SURF SCOTER winging its way down the lake. Aurora was rather slow, but there were a fair number of COMMON LOONS some distance out on the lake off the bluffs south of town. The EASTERN SCREECH-OWL was in the duck box in the pond on Factory Street in Union Springs.
At Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, duck numbers seemed a bit lower than last weekend, but the raft of RING-NECKED DUCKS is increasingly infiltrated with numbers of REDHEADS, CANVASBACKS, and LESSER SCAUPS. 4 DUNLIN were in the Montezuma Visitor's Center impoundment. At East Road, 1 CACKLING GOOSE and at least 1 (likely 2) ROSS'S GOOSE were present among thousands of SNOW GEESE. The Montezuma mucklands were generally wind-swept and quiet, but Van Dyne Spoor hosted 21 TRUMPETER SWANS (with 4 TUNDRA SWANS mixed in) and 2 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS (1 light, 1 dark). We found an additional 10 TRUMPETER SWANS and a single DUNLIN at Armitage Road. Our total of 31 TRUMPETER SWANS beats my previous personal high count of 25 (all at Armitage Road, last week), and may be among the highest counts in the state. Of particular note, one of the swans had a red neck-collar, and it will be interesting to hear back about the provenance of this bird. In Seneca Falls, we located some delicious, well-portioned sandwiches and soups and good coffee at ZuZu Cafe, which was upscale but not over-priced. We worked a few areas on the west side of the lake on the way south, but we did not hit any big concentrations of feeding loons and gulls. In fact, most of the loons we did see were well away from shore, and their distance combined with the onshore wind made observation difficult. A flock of BRANT was feeding on the grass in Cass Park on our way into Ithaca. The arguable highlight of the day came following Matt, Maria, and my departure from Stewart Park (see Tom's previous post). Luckily, Matt and I managed to get back to see the handsome first-cycle THAYER'S GULL initially spotted by Tom and Carolyn. This is a handsome bird, between its fresh plumage and fine markings, and it is certainly one of the better examples of "Thayer's" I have seen in the Northeast. Mike Harvey [email protected] -- 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/ --
