Went birding up the east side of Cayuga Lake and Montezuma and vicinity with my friends Melissa Penta and Renee DePrato.
We didn't have luck finding any Ross's Geese either as the huge raft of snow geese was too distant as we only went up the east side of the lake. We saw probably a couple thousand wigeon between Cayuga Lake and Montezuma and vicinity and just could not make out any into Eurasians. Conditions in many places were bad for viewing... lots of wind and cold. BRRRRRR. >From the east side of Cayuga Lake, just before the railroad tracks north of >Union Springs across from Letty Cook Woods (where we met Bob and Laura) is where the best aythya raft is with the huge raft of snow geese farther out. We had the same as Bob and Laura here plus BUFFLEHEAD, and NORTHERN PINTAIL We did not get any horned or eared grebes at all today. We had only had one PIED-BILLED GREBE from the end of Van Dyne Sporer Road. Mud Lock had several TRUMPETER SWANS. Tschache Pool was loaded with waterfowl. Loaded. Mostly RING-NECKED DUCKS, and loads of AMERICAN WIGEON. The wind and the cold made it almost unbearable from the tower to sort through the wigeon. Eyes were tearing up so much, and the wind was shaking our scopes and I believe the tower a little. Conditions were very difficult to find anything unusual that was distant. We did get on a group of TUNDRA SWANS distant and there was also GADWALL, Scaup sp. some NORTHERN PINTAIL, BLACK DUCKS, MALLARDS, and GREEN-WINGED TEAL. We could only stand the wind and cold for maybe 15 minutes so we moved on. We did not spend as much time as we would have liked here. We probably missed some here. May's Point was also loaded. I have never seen so many NORTHERN PINTAIL in my life. They were everywhere with many many AMERICAN WIGEON too and quite a few GREEN-WINGED TEAL. The shear numbers were impressive. >From East Road we had around 50 TUNDRA SWANS on the ice and many more NORTHERN >PINTAIL. In Savannah, from Savannah Spring Lake Road at the Muckrace Flats we had 10 NORTHERN SHOVELERS. there were again more pintail, wigeon and green-winged teal here. Carncross, Morgan and Van Dyne Sporer Roads also had tons of NORTHERN PINTAIL as well. This was a Pintail day for sure. We also had many many AMERICAN WIGEON, plus quite a few GREEN-WINGED TEAL, HOODED and a few COMMON MERGANSERS. We counted 53 TUNDRA SWANS in the field to the right of Carncross Rd and 79 more from Morgan Rd looking toward Van Dyne Sporer rd. There were many AMERICAN COOTS at the end of Van Dyne Sporer Rd. In all places, there were many blackbird flocks, mostly RED-WINGED but also COMMON GRACKLES. Did not scour through these for Rusties or by chance a rogue yellow-headed blackbird. Just before sunset, the trees in the woods along Van Dyne Sporer road were becoming full of blackbirds and they still were flying in when we left. But the bird of the day for us was a lone SHORT-EARED OWL that flew toward us and almost overhead from the end of Morgan road just at sunset so we still had good lighting. This was a great view and fairly close. In all we totaled 61 species which was definitively worth it, given the cold and windy conditions!!!! Dave Nicosia ________________________________ From: bob mcguire <[email protected]> To: cayugabirdlist <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2013 6:13 PM Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Around the Lake Laura Stenzler and I spent today circling the lake clockwise. Stewart Park had considerable new ice and a greatly reduced waterfowl population including numerous Hooded Mergansers and couple of Common Goldeneys. We drove up the west side directly to Lower Lake Road, hoping to find Snow Geese close in (and a Ross's with them). From Woolfy's, the geese were way out - approximately half way across. Then of thousands of them still around, but we did not linger to count. There was a good variety of waterfowl at that end, including Redheads, Ring-necked Ducks, Canvasbacks, both Scaup, all three Mergansers as well as a few Goldeneye, Tundra Swans, and a small flock of Ruddys. We drove through the Mucklands, noting the low water level in the fields (no Pintails, Mallards, or Black Ducks). There was some open water at Knox-Marsellus, and we found a large group of Northern Pintails. Tschache also had open water, and we scoped through a large number of American Wigeons but had no luck with Eurasian. Back down the east side of the lake, we stopped at the new development just opposite Letty Cook Woods and spent a good hour picking through the dispersed raft of ducks: similar species to the west side and no Eurasian Wigeon. The raft of Snow Geese was slightly closer to us at that point, but still too distant to make out any small geese. Shortly before we left, Dave Nicosia arrived with his group. I'll be interested to hear if they found anything new. Off the boathouse at Aurora we found a single Eared Grebe but no Horned Grebes. And the highlights of the day were a fly-over Peregrine Falcon at the Montezuma Winery and a pair of Wood Ducks swimming across Factory Street pond in Union Springs. Bob McGuire -- 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/ -- -- 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/ --
