This afternoon as I was leaving the lakeshore to walk home, I heard a HAIRY WOODPECKER calling. After some searching, I saw it fly a short distance in the tall trees overhead, and got it in binoculars - a male. It then flew again in the same direction, but alit on the blue-painted shingle siding of a house, which I noticed had a couple of woodpecker-workings drilled in it. In fact it was perched at the largest of these holes, and it quickly dove in. That was at 4:25pm. It was cool to see a bird go to bed, yet I was uncomfortable about it being within the wall of a house. It made me think of bot-flies.
Often on my walks I am so late going home that I observe no birds on my return trip. After actually seeing a bird go to bed, I thought that would be the case. Then at 4:39 I heard a RED-TAILED HAWK call several times from the Hog Hole woods, although I didn't see it. At 4:51 I was surprised to see a single MOURNING DOVE flying north over Cass Park. In the gathering dusk at 4:56 I saw a single MOURNING DOVE flying south and I wondered if it was the same indecisive bird. At 4:57 a second RED-TAILED HAWK screamed once and flew north past me. A couple minutes later, after I'd walked past where I last saw the Mourning Dove, I again saw the/this insomniac dove fly farther south and across the Inlet. How do birds decide where to sleep, and why couldn't this one make up its mind?
Those of you looking at eBird may notice a couple species recorded on 4 January from Cass Park which look like they should have added to the count week. The AMERICAN PIPIT and NORTHERN PINTAIL that a gang of us saw in Sheldrake were recorded on our trip starting from Cass Park, but the eBird marker stayed deceptively in Cass Park, as if we had gone 38 times around the Cayuga Waterfront Trail instead going 19 miles up the lake.
Often on my walks I am so late going home that I observe no birds on my return trip. After actually seeing a bird go to bed, I thought that would be the case. Then at 4:39 I heard a RED-TAILED HAWK call several times from the Hog Hole woods, although I didn't see it. At 4:51 I was surprised to see a single MOURNING DOVE flying north over Cass Park. In the gathering dusk at 4:56 I saw a single MOURNING DOVE flying south and I wondered if it was the same indecisive bird. At 4:57 a second RED-TAILED HAWK screamed once and flew north past me. A couple minutes later, after I'd walked past where I last saw the Mourning Dove, I again saw the/this insomniac dove fly farther south and across the Inlet. How do birds decide where to sleep, and why couldn't this one make up its mind?
Those of you looking at eBird may notice a couple species recorded on 4 January from Cass Park which look like they should have added to the count week. The AMERICAN PIPIT and NORTHERN PINTAIL that a gang of us saw in Sheldrake were recorded on our trip starting from Cass Park, but the eBird marker stayed deceptively in Cass Park, as if we had gone 38 times around the Cayuga Waterfront Trail instead going 19 miles up the lake.
--Dave Nutter
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