Hi all,
Yesterday, 5/4, my husband Ton Schat and I spent the day birding from around
4:30 am til 9 pm. We usually do a "big day" (all day out to see how many
species we can see/hear) around the middle of May, but because migration has
been so crazy this year, we decided to do a 'preliminary' big day yesterday,
knowing not all birds are back yet. We had a great day, aside from a 2 hour
delay due to car problems (from 3-5 pm!). We tried some different strategies
than our normal route, which had us heading up the lake later than usual. That,
along with our delay, caused us to skip some sites and miss some species. In
addition, we missed 5 species that have been on our property daily and were
there again today!! (Sapsucker, Pileated WP, Purple Finch, Waxwing and
Thrasher!!). Oh well - you can't be everywhere at once!
We started owling at 4:30 am and were unlucky everywhere we tried. Oh well -
zip on the owls. We started from there in Stewart Park, which was much more
quiet than we had hoped. We did get a NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH at the swan pen and
also picked up our only HOODED MERGANSERS for the day. From there we headed to
SHINDAGIN HOLLOW, with stops along the way at HUNT HILL RD for our feeder PINE
SISKINS and HUMMINGBIRD and along HURD ROAD for possible Hooded Warbler and
Brown Thrasher, which were not there but we did get lots of other great birds.
A quick stop at the Park Preserve got us PRAIRIE WARBLER, and a second stop
later in the day had our only MAGNOLIA WARBLER. A trip up Creamery Rd. got us
BOBLINK and MEADOWLARK.
Shindagin Hollow was amazing! Our plan was to hit the Hawthorns for any
warblers we missed in Shindagin, but we saw and heard almost all of the 20
species we identified all day (missed Hooded, which breeds there)! Warblers at
Shindagin included Parula, Tennessee, Black Throated Blue (lots), Black
Throated Green, Chestnut-Sided, Canada, Blue-winged and Ovenbird.
YELLOW-THROATED VIREO also at Shindagin, but no Winter Wrens so we made our
way to Deputron Rd., off Coddington, where we picked up LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH
and WINTER WREN. On to the Hawthorns to get BLACKBURNIAN and YELLOW-RUMPED
Warblers. Next was Sapsucker Woods, where we FAILED to see the KESTREL - a
miss for the day! Also, no SAPSUCKERS!! Amazing! Time was flying and we had
lots still to cover, so we left Sapsucker Woods and headed downtown to get
Chimney Swift (already 3 pm!!), but that's when we had car problems and thought
we'd have to abort. A quick trip to drop off the car at Varna Auto, help from
friends to get home to pick up our other car and we were at Myers Park by 5 pm,
wondering what the heck we were doing! We were at 91 species -far from our
average of 130!! But, we motored on!
The rest of the evening turned out to be wonderful. Highlights included a
very productive trip along Towpath Rd. between 7:30 and 8 pm, with the sun
providing great lighting. BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON, GREEN HERON, PALM WARBLER
and just beautiful scenery. Then up to Van Dyne Spoor Rd. where we tried for
Virginia Rail and Sora (no luck) but did hear a continuously calling AMERICAN
BITTERN. As it got dark, we tried again for owls in that area, but no luck.
It was a really wonderful day, but a bit frustrating. No time to get the
Upland Sandpipers. And some misses that were probably due to the fact that all
birds are not back in all places yet. No terns at all, no Indigo Buntings nor
Kingbirds (nor Alder or Willow flycatchers), no time to look for Redbreasted
Nuthatch, no Bank Swallows at our usual place in the quarry in Brooktondale,
few raptors. But, we're going to try it all again next weekend!!
Below is the eBIRD list we submitted.
Happy birding!
Laura and Ton
Laura Stenzler
l...@cornell.edu
________________________________________
Cayuga Lake Basin, Seneca, US-NY
May 4, 2012 4:37 AM - 7:37 PM
Protocol: Traveling
120.0 mile(s)
Comments: Shindagin Hollow to Van Dyne Spoor Rd. Probably not totally in
the basin, due to Shindagin.
121 species (X's mean present, but no numbers entered.)
Canada Goose X
Trumpeter Swan 1
Wood Duck X
Gadwall X
American Wigeon X
Mallard X
Blue-winged Teal X
Northern Shoveler X
Green-winged Teal X
Ring-necked Duck X
Lesser Scaup 1
Bufflehead 2
Hooded Merganser 6
Common Merganser X
Ring-necked Pheasant 1
Wild Turkey 3
Common Loon 2
Pied-billed Grebe 2
Double-crested Cormorant 2
American Bittern 1 calling spontneously at Van Dyne Spoor Rd. marsh
Great Blue Heron X
Green Heron 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 2
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey X
Bald Eagle X
Northern Harrier 2
Red-tailed Hawk X
Common Gallinule 1
American Coot X
Killdeer X
Spotted Sandpiper X
Solitary Sandpiper X
Greater Yellowlegs X
Lesser Yellowlegs X
Dunlin X
American Woodcock X
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Chimney Swift X
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker X
Downy Woodpecker X
Hairy Woodpecker X
Northern Flicker X
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Least Flycatcher X
Eastern Phoebe X
Great Crested Flycatcher X
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
Blue-headed Vireo 1
Warbling Vireo X
Red-eyed Vireo X
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Common Raven 2
Northern Rough-winged Swallow X
Purple Martin X
Tree Swallow X
Barn Swallow X
Black-capped Chickadee X
Tufted Titmouse X
White-breasted Nuthatch X
Brown Creeper X
Carolina Wren X
House Wren X
Winter Wren X
Marsh Wren X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet X
Veery 1
Hermit Thrush X
Wood Thrush X
American Robin X
Gray Catbird X
Northern Mockingbird X
European Starling X
Ovenbird X
Louisiana Waterthrush X
Northern Waterthrush X
Blue-winged Warbler X
Black-and-white Warbler X
Tennessee Warbler X
Nashville Warbler X
Common Yellowthroat X
American Redstart X
Northern Parula X
Magnolia Warbler X
Blackburnian Warbler X
Yellow Warbler X
Chestnut-sided Warbler X
Black-throated Blue Warbler X
Palm Warbler X
Yellow-rumped Warbler X
Prairie Warbler X
Black-throated Green Warbler X
Canada Warbler X
Eastern Towhee X
Chipping Sparrow X
Field Sparrow X
Savannah Sparrow X
Song Sparrow X
Swamp Sparrow X
White-throated Sparrow X
White-crowned Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco X
Scarlet Tanager X
Northern Cardinal X
Rose-breasted Grosbeak X
Bobolink X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Eastern Meadowlark X
Common Grackle X
Brown-headed Cowbird X
Baltimore Oriole X
House Finch X
Pine Siskin X
American Goldfinch X
House Sparrow X
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
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