Hi all, Thank you to everyone who sent me information about snow geese, especially to Fritizie who called me to report about the lousy weather ahead. Unfortunately, kids did not get to enjoy the birds as we were about to start it started pouring in Ithaca. So we ended up spending time in Stewart Park in Ithaca. I had scoped out the birds before hand and had thought it would be easy to put a scope on each species and let the kids see. First bird I wanted to show was an American Widgeon, which was fairly close to shore for a scope and further away for kids binocular. As it happened the widgeon kept swimming around a pair of Canada geese and a pair of mallard. So when I ever I asked the kids to see and tell me what they were seeing, they promptly replied Canada Geese and mallards, because by the time kids saw through the scope the bird would have swum away. It took several tries to finally show them a widgeon. I could show them five species of ducks by the time the weather became so nasty that kids started to shiver and wanted to go back to the car. So it was a disaster, but at least one of them they learned to recognize five different ducks. Wow it is hard. I felt I should have spent time on gulls. But we did observe one young Great Black-backed gull play with a ball, who would throw it away and run and catch it. Once it fell into the water, gull dashed into the water clumsily and seemed eager not to let it fall into the water again.
Before the kids were on the scene, while I was scouting I saw several Red-Breasted mergansers and Goldeneyes close to East shore. There was also a flotilla of Ruddy Ducks one of the ducks was in full breeding plumage with lovely blue bill. Yesterday after work I went to check out on the ducks and geese. Northern part of the lake was still frozen with patches of open water. On the way near Taughannock state park I watched BLACK VULTURE fly over my car. >From Cayuga Lake State Park I could see a huge long raft of Snow Geese and >many were coming form the east, seemed closer to Harris's Park. So I decided >to head down there. From Harris's park they looked closer to west shore. So >basically they were in the middle of the lake. Then I headed to the Mucklands. As I arrived to the Mucklands, I saw lots of snow geese heading to the Mucklands and some tried to land. Then I heard four shots that scattered and scared them. so they circled over and went to Rail road side and circled around then headed what seemed to be towards the lake. Like last year there were several decoys in the field, but the snow geese that were trying to land were steering clear of that location. Just then the sun came out and the Tundra Swan in the sun were looking very gorgeous! I came across several flocks of blackbirds. So I headed towards Montezuma Refuge. I waited for some time at the parking lot of North Spring Pool, when I saw some congregation occurring down the road. At the time I also saw lots of snow geese in the background of grey cloud were lit with sun light they looked like whites caps on the lake as the waves of geese moved around. On the way at the rest area on 89 just north of South Spring Pool parking lot, I found hugest congregation of blackbirds. Everyone was chattering in excitement. there was stiff wind from west and all the birds were facing west and sitting in the breeze. The flocks would lift and move around and settle on a next tree. They kept doing this till the whole group would break off and fly east towards the final roosting location. I waited till the last few brave ones also left to sleep in the marsh. I am attaching a link to one clip, when the birds flew it was probably 1/20 of the flock size. I could watch this spectacle many times and year after year that never stops me from wondering in awe as to where these birds spend the day time and where are they heading. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=libmAnsR7eI And on the way home somewhere near Ovid, I saw a smallish owl take off from the field close to the road, I think it was a probably a Screech Owl, but am not 100% sure. Then also I came across a baby opossum crossing the road. It dilly dallied for a few sec as I approached it. I completely came to halt for it to cross. After few seconds it became brave and crossed the road. Last few steps it actually ran! It was very adorable. After a I drove away, I realized I could have taken some pictures of it. May be next time! Cheers Meena Meena Haribal Ithaca NY 14850 42.429007,-76.47111 http://haribal.org/ http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ -- 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/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
