I saw the same birds as Meena at Sheldrake this afternoon around two and then continued north. Just south of Cayuga Park there were several hundred noisy Tundra Swans accompanied by an elongated raft of countless Canada Geese and an isolated group of 10 Common Loons fishing.
We took a circuitous route inland from Sheldrake ending up at the Knox-Marcellus Marsh. The flooded areas yielded several hundred Snow Geese with eight blue morph adults, a dozen Tundra Swans, countless Canada Geese, two Great Blue Herons, several mallards, and a few other ducks. The wind was surprisingly cold making viewing a challenge after a while—it's time to dress warmer for winter birding! Starting down the east side of the lake, we stopped in Cayuga and saw seven Greater-Black Backed Gulls, four Ring Bills, and a Belted Kingfisher fish around the Town offices. Two-Red Tailed Hawks in Union Springs were my last birds as I lost the light early, or so it seemed, at 4:05 pm. Candace Cornell Ithaca, NY On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 5:32 PM, Meena Haribal <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > I was an errand to pick up some plants. So I went to Sheldrake to look for > loons. I did see about 40+ loons, but all of them were Common Loon. I was > hoping at least one different loon I would see, but no such luck. But it > was fun to watch the loons. Most of them were putting there face inside > water to look for fish and swimming. A few of them came up with something > in their beak. One looked like a big snail. They were scattered in groups > of three or fours. One loon vocalized many times. I think it was the same > guy as it sounded from same location. Other than loons, there were a few > Black Ducks, Buffleheads, three Red-breasted Mergansers, two males and five > females of Hooded Mergansers, one Red-bellied woodpecker and a couple of > Red-tailed Hawk were observed. > > > > At Taughannock SP I saw a lone Bonaparte's Gull flying south and other > usual birds, including couple of Common Loons. > > I was planning to go all the way to Cayuga lake State Park, but felt it > was too long to drive hence returned from Sheldrake. > > > Meena Haribal > Ithaca NY 14850 > http://haribal.org/ > http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ > > -- > *Cayugabirds-L List Info:* > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> > Subscribe, Configuration and > Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > *Archives:* > The Mail > Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> > Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> > BirdingOnThe.Net <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/[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/ --
