Credit for this discovery goes to Stuart Krasnoff and Paul Anderson. I was only the messenger. They were in the second of 2 cars of birders headed north. In the lead car Bob was driving and I was riding shotgun. As we turned from the north end of Lake Rd back onto NYS-90 entering the Village of Aurora, I was thinking of the gravelly delta of Payne's Creek, where Tom Johnson once conjured up a California Gull (possibly only the first or second Cayuga Lake Basin record) by saying "There ought to be a California Gull here," or words to that effect, and suddenly he found one. So I was staring at the Ring-billed Gulls for any ringers. As we approached the Aurora Boathouse, Bob glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw that Stuart's car had stopped just past the bridge, and Stuart, Paul, and Judy Thoroughman were jumping out and running back. We quickly joined them and saw the reason for the excitement. What intrigues me, though, is the manner of their find. Apparently as they were at the stop sign at the north end of Lake Rd, Paul idly mentioned that he'd like to see a Red-headed Woodpecker as it would be a life bird, and within seconds Stuart saw it. This area around the mouth of Payne's Creek is a mysterious place. I have heard rumors, listened to legends, and chased reports of Red-headed Woodpeckers in the Aurora area, mainly north of town, for years. It was a thrill to finally see one, and furthermore, to hear confirmation of what seemed likely given the date, that this is a breeding territory.
--Dave Nutter
--Dave Nutter
On May 21, 2011, at 08:00 PM, wroberts <[email protected]> wrote:
I had the good fortune of meeting up with Bob McGuire, Dave Nutter, Susan
Danskin, and others as they
were tracking the movement of a Red-headed Woodpecker at the corner of Poplar
Ridge Rd. and Rt. 90 in
Aurora earlier today (Saturday) around 12:20 p.m. The bird was very active
flying back and forth in the
nearby woods; it was first located on the west side of 90 in a yard
immediately north of Paynes Creek.
After Bob, Dave and Susan and friends left for Montezuma I continued searching
for the bird as it was the
first RhW I have observed in Aurora in over twenty years. With the help of a
friend I located the RhW in the
large Sycamore east of 90 and south of Poplar Ridge. After about 30 minutes I
discovered that there were
two RhWs moving in the tree tops and flying back and forth over Rt. 90. It
seems that this is a breeding
pair which adds to the excitement of having this magnificent species finally
return to the Aurora area.
I did manage to photograph the bird at some distance. Bill Roberts
Aurora, N.Y.
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