I accidentally omitted Ann Mitchell from the roster. Her tally was 113 species, so I either didn't hear or neglected to write down a few.
Apologies for this ridiculously late post. A gang of us from Ithaca (Bob McGuire, Susan Danskin, Stuart Krasnoff, Judy Thoroughman, Paul Anderson & myself) went around Cayuga Lake on Saturday. I thought most of what we observed was not new, and we were exhausted by the end of the day. That's my excuse, anyway.Both Ken Rosenberg and Dave Nicosia have since come up empty in the Black Tern department. Thanks to Jay McGowan, we went to the end of Van Dyne Spoor Road and had a show from several BLACK TERNS, both close over the open water and more distantly over the marsh. I hope they haven't disappeared from there as well. Perhaps with all the other places to check Ken & Dave both skipped this location. It's also possible (but not likely, considering how thorough and observant each is) that the birders happened to be there when the birds were in a distant part of their circuit. It seemed to me that each of the Black Terns was moving counter-clockwise, coming north to the corner of the marsh by the end of the road, then going west.Trip highlights:Stewart Park: An adult BALD EAGLE was hunting over the lake far to our north. It snagged a large fish-like object from the surface and flew to the east shore. Perhaps this bird belongs to the nest on the west shore near the Ithaca Yacht Club.Myers Point: A breeding plumage RUDDY TURNSTONE was poking around on the shore of the spit. Although Stuart posted almost immediately, it had disappeared by the time Jay McGowan arrived. No matter, he saw 3 up north later.Salt Point: You may recall Stuart's experience with a male ORCHARD ORIOLE alighting on his rear-view mirror. I don't know if it was in the same parking location, but a female came down to Paul's windshield & mirrors, more to forage than attack I think. This was under the tree at the fork in the road just west of the railroad tracks. There we also saw her sing, solicit, and be mounted by a male. A different male (first year) sang from along the railroad south of Salmon Creek. Other birds of interest included a WILLOW FLYCATCHER which sang for Ann & Stuart, a WILSON'S WARBLER which sang for all of us, and a BALTIMORE ORIOLE nest high over the road.Lake Road, Ledyard: BOBOLINKS, SAVANNAH SPARROWS and EASTERN MEADOWLARKS, but no Grasshopper Sparrow for us.Union Springs: A SOLITARY SANDPIPER was in the southwest corner of the Mill Pond.Montezuma NWR entrance: LEAST SANDPIPERS in pond by 5&20 & by Visitor Center. CERULEAN WARBLER in Cottonwoods between bathroom building, tower, and start of Wildlife Drive. MARSH WREN singing invisibly not far from viewing platform. LEAST & WILLOW FLYCATCHERS each in appropriate habitat.Wildlife Drive: AMERICAN BITTERN flew out of "shorebird area".Tschache Pool: COMMON GALLINULE close to tower.May's Point Pool: Many SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, also quite a few LEAST and one SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER, plus 3 GREAT EGRETS, several GREAT BLUE HERONS and a pair of GADWALL.Towpath Road: by now we'd heard from Jay that there were lots of shorebirds. We also saw an immature BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON and a NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH. We got called back for the WILSON'S PHALAROPE.Martens Tract: Most of us heard an extremely distant LEAST BITTERN. There were also lots of MARSH WRENS and SWAMP SPARROWS. A couple of VIRGINIA RAILS came within a few yards of us in response to playback but all of the above birds were invisible.Van Dyne Spoor Road: the aforementioned BLACK TERNS were lovely.Armitage Road: Not only did we get incredible looks at a PROTHONOTARY WARBLER, but we also saw from the same spot a female CERULEAN WARBLER, a male AMERICAN REDSTART, a YELLOW WARBLER, a BALTIMORE ORIOLE and a YELLOW-THROATED VIREO.King Road: We saw the CLAY-COLORED SPARROW sing, but he was inaudible to me from within the car.Lott Farm: We saw 3 UPLAND SANDPIPERS in the once-mowed and twice mowed areas in the northeast area of the "avenues" with goofy names. At that time the land beyond the avenues, either north or south was mostly not mowed. We also saw a HORNED LARK and some SAVANNAH SPARROWS.I think our total was around 108 species for the day, though we weren't trying to maximize species, just searching out migrants and new birds for us for the year in the basin, of which I added 19.--Dave Nutter--Cayugabirds-L List Info:Archives:Please submit your observations to eBird!--
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Cayugabirds-L List Info:
Archives:
Please submit your observations to eBird!
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