Keep an eye out for a gorgeous male WOOD DUCK at the south end of the lake. I saw it off Stewart Park on Wednesday 14 December. Sorry I forgot to post it, as that was a busy taxi day. On 10 December I also saw a flock of about 20 NORTHERN PINTAIL off Stewart among the CANADA GEESE. They took flight and I thought they went south, and I haven't seen them since, but I wonder if they have been hanging around the area unseen for a week.
If anyone is heading downtown in Ithaca, I recommend a stop at Stewart Park - with the bright sun and calm lake, the thousands of geese, ducks, and gulls, offer an unusually spectacular view. Many of the birds are in very close. Among the thousands of CANADA GEESE, MALLARDS, and the common 3 gulls, were a mixed group of REDHEAD, RING-NECKED DUCKS, with a few SCAUP, CANVASBACK, BUFFLEHEAD, GADWALL, AM WIGEON, COOTS (100 or so), a newly arrived group of 20+ NORTHERN PINTAIL, and a little further out several rafts of HOODED MERGANSERS -- I counted 60 birds, COMMON GOLDENEYE, and COMMON MERGANSERS.
I briefly found a (the) 2nd-cycle ICELAND GULL floating with the mergansers -- it likely joined the gulls on the newly formed ice edge and was at the wrong angle for me to pick out the white wing-tips and relocate.
I'm sure there is a good goose or two for anyone with enough time and patience to sort through them.
This was about noon -- I hope everything is still there and in nice light.
KEN
Ken Rosenberg
Conservation Science Program
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
607-254-2412
607-342-4594 (cell)
[email protected]
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