Hi all, We started from Lab of O, where a beautiful SPOTTED SANDPIPER, fed along the p0ond shore while continuously bobbing its tail. At one point it stopped and preened and scratched. Many of us enjoyed watching him up so close.
Then we headed straight to Green-Springs cemetery road. On the way on Rt 13 a PILEATED WOODPECKER flew over our car. On the lake I saw a few gulls and two of them looked like BONAPARTE'S GULLS with white wing bar. We stopped about a mile before Green-Springs cemetery to look for birds. Here we had spectacular looks at PRAIRIE WARBLERS, CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLERS, YELLOW, YELLOW RUMPED WARBLERS, a distant BLUE-WINGED WARBLER (only I heard), INDIGO BUNTINGS, FIELD SPARROW (which was singing a wierdsong), SONG and CHIPPING SPARROWS etc. We also heard SCARLET TANAGERS and ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS. A RUFFED GROUSE drummed at a distance. At Green-Spring cemetery, as we pulled in we got awesome looks at two displaying BOBOLINKS on pine tree. We again saw here a co-operative CHESTNUT SIDED WARBLER after some chasing the sound to locate it. We also saw and heard two NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS. >From here we headed to Arnot Forest. At first stop we watched a female RB >GROSBEAK carrying nesting material and a female Am. ROBIN on the nest. Next >stop was at a pull out, where we ran into small flock of warblers and >residents. We had several OVENBIRDS, and fantastic looks at two of them, >YELLOW-RUMPED, BLACK-THROATED BLUE, CHESTNUT-SIDED (one with very short 3 mm >chestnut side), SCARLET TANAGER, a distant BROWN CREEPER etc. I also heard a >pair of WOOD DUCKS overhead. Then we stopped at a pond, a PILEATED and HAIRY WOODPECKERS put in some appearance. A pair of WOOD DUCKS took off from the pond and hid behind a grassy island. A chickadee pair was going in and out of a small whole in a small ground level stump, watched one carry out something like mud in its bill. Best sighting for me was a CAROLINA SADDLEBAG dashing around the pond. Also there were a couple of Common Green Darners and a tandem pair that was laying eggs. >From here onwards, till we reached the top we heard tens of CHESTNUT-SIDED >WARBLERS fighting over territories. I heard them sing a trill, which I have >never heard! We also found a HOODED and a CANADA Warblers. Many got good looks >at HOODED WARBLER. RB Grosbeaks and Tanagers seemed common too. After the lunch at the meadows on the top of Arnot. We went in search of Bobolinks and possible Grasshopper sparrows, but we did not see any. We also did not see the kingbird that is usually found here. Later we heard that Dave's group did see a GRASSHOPPER SPARROW there. >From here onwards things vvere combatively quiet. We did see a couple of CANADA WARBLERS and heard some more. BLACK-THROATED GREEN, AMERICAN REDSTARTS, BLACK-THROATED BLUE warblers were fairly common. We also heard a BLACK and WHITE warbler on the top of the hill in its usual location. We heard one Hermit thrush and one BLUE-HEADED-VIREO (doing its Great Crested flycathecher like "creep"). We also saw a few VEERIES, YELLOW-THROATED VIREO, PINE WARBLER and a few PURPLE FINCHES at the lodge. A male PURPLE FINCH sat in front of us for a long time. We also came across six YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKERS on our entire trip. On the whole we had 70 species for the whole group and about 75 were my trip ticks. It was a nice day! Cheers Meena Meena Haribal Ithaca NY 14850 http://haribal.org/ http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
