Tim and I decided to enjoy the good weather with a trip around the lake.
The highlight was two aythya rafts.
We started at East Shore, where we found the WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS and
LONG-TAILED DUCKS reported in recent days. We also saw several HORNED
GREBES, a few COMMON GOLDENEYE, AMERICAN COOTS, a DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT,
and COMMON and HOODED MERGANSERS. And from here we spotted our first aythya
duck raft--in the Hog Hole area.
So we went to Treman Marina and walked out to Hog Hole where we had
spectacular looks at the duck raft. My guess was that it had about 500
ducks, 90% were REDHEAD, but there were also both SCAUP, at least one
RINGED-NECK, and a few CANVASBACK. We also saw 3 BUFFLEHEAD, a BLACK DUCK,
and a PIED-BILLED GREBE.
We stopped briefly at Stewart Park and found some Redhead mixed with lots
of geese but not much else. We found only the common gulls, lots of
Mallards, and a few Black Ducks in choppy water at Myers. In Aurora we
found several Horned Grebes and one EARED GREBE.
On the ponds in Union Springs we found GADWALL and Redhead. I was surprised
to see open water on the lake at Union Springs, so we went to the town hall
boat launch area, and here is where we found our second aythya flock of the
day. The wind was cold here, so we didn't scope the raft for long. It
seemed to be 95% Redhead, but it was probably twice the size of the flock
in Hog Hole.
There was lots of open water all the way to Mud Lock, but the only birds we
found north of Union Springs were behind houses between Harris Park and Mud
Lock. We could see a few SWANS along here, but we couldn't find a good
vantage point so didn't try to identify them further.
Cayuga Lake State Park was ice. The only part of the lake we checked on the
west side was Sheldrake, where we found 5 LONG-TAILED DUCKS off the point
along with a female Common Merganser that we tried unsuccessfully to turn
into a Red-breasted. The rest of the lake through Sheldrake was almost
completely void of birds.
Anne Marie Johnson
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