This morning, I birded the Hawthorn Orchard from about 7:00am to 8:45am. It was really quiet, but I was please to find two YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHERS actively foraging and sporadically calling and chasing each other around.
I have placed a handful of recordings up on SoundCloud, including the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher(s) calling. Unfortunately, I did not capture an amazing outburst between these two birds when they were chasing each other around; some of the sounds included a series of Acadian Flycatcher-like "we-it!" calls. You can listen to these and the other recordings here: http://soundcloud.com/cth4th One item of concern from this morning's visit, is that there was a very noticeable amount of oil slick in standing water around the perimeter of the North intramural sports ball field and in slowly moving water well into the middle of the Hawthorn Orchard from about ENE to SW. I had not noticed this before and I'm not entirely sure where this is coming from, but I'm looking into it. Some have suggested this is a result of pesticide/herbicide application; there had been an application vehicle working the South intramural sports ball field back around the 24th. Here's a list of the notables for the day: 1 Red-tailed Hawk 1 American Kestrel 1 Eastern Wood-Pewee (NW of Hawthorn Orchard) 2 YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHERS (active in mid-NW area of Hawthorn Orchard; sporadically calling and chasing each other) I did not hear the Wood Thrush singing this morning. 3-4 Yellow Warblers 1 Magnolia Warbler (female) 2 American Redstarts 3-4 Common Yellowthroats 2 Indigo Buntings 1 Bobolink (flyover) Good birding! Sincerely, Chris T-H -- Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes TARU Product Line Manager and Field Applications Engineer Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850 W: 607-254-2418 M: 607-351-5740 F: 607-254-1132 http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
