After doing my mental cost-benefit analysis this morning, the Lab for thrushes or chase Nate's reported Dickcissel, Freeze road won out. I searched from about 7am, luckily Dave, Ann and the CBC field trip participants saw me staring intently at the ground and came over. Dave was able to get it in the scope as it flew up to the corn stalks and everyone was able to get good views; Stuart made a video grab. I don't have any experience with this bird, but it seemed to remind me of a Bobolink in overall size/shape impression, bulky but sleek. This is a terrific addition to the birds possible at Freeze Rd. I'm glad Nate found it and Tom Schulenberg was able to get the word out.
I had another sparrow that sang twice around 8am. The song caught my ear as new to me. I was able to see it, but was unsure of the ID. It had a white throat grey face, with brownish eyeline, the supercilium wasn't yellow, but was broad, and there was some finer upper breast streaking and a diffuse yellowish patch on the breast, clear underparts, grey bill and the crown was brown or chestnut. It didn't seem to have the bulk of the later Dickcissel, but was Song Sparrow sized. It may have been a juvenile Dickcissel, as Sibley shows the 1st winter female with some streaking, but I'm not sure. Lincoln's Sparrows were also in abundance today and thrill me to no end. Gary On Sep 25, 2011, at 12:33 PM, Nicholas Sly wrote: I birded the Freese Road gardens this morning with a number of other birders looking for the Dickcissel and enjoying the sparrow show. I uploaded lousy pictures of the Dickcissel, Lincoln's Sparrows, and others here: http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa220/slybirdsly/Birding/Freese%20Road%202011/ The Dickcissel was moving around a bit in different portions of the garden. Gary K found it first (after an hour or more of all of us searching) in the southern section of gardens near the corn plot. I refound it twice later in the north section in a dense grassy area. It seemed to be foraging mostly on the ground out of sight, and was hard to find initially and then hard to relocate. My eBird checklist is below. Cheers, Nick Freese Road, Tompkins, US-NY Sep 25, 2011 8:12 AM - 10:22 AM Protocol: Traveling 1.0 mile(s) Comments: with many CBC birders looking for the Dickcissel 29 species Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) 16 Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) 1 Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) 1 Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) 1 High flyover coming from Monkey Run Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) 1 Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) (Colaptes auratus [auratus Group]) 1 Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) 1 Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) 5 American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) 6 Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) 4 White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) 2 House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) 1 Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) 5 European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) 7 Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) 200 Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) 2 Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina) 1 Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla) 2 Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) 4 Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 41 Lincoln's Sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii) 2 Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) 2 Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) 1 Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) 1 Dickcissel (Spiza americana) 1 Seen well by many observers and photographed. Other observers saw it sing briefly. Foraging in the garden plots, mostly on the ground and hard to find and relocate. House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) 1 American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 11 House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) 8 This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://ebird.org) -- 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/ -- -- 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/ --
