Ann, Dave, Diane, Ken and I spent the day out looking for birds. We found a few new year birds for each of us and experienced a few remarkable moments.
>From the shore at Stewart Park we watched as an immense flock of thousands of >Redheads took to the air from the water off East Shore Park and circled the >south end of the lake for a good twenty minutes, murmuration-like. They were >joined by dozens of gulls. Although we never saw it come in, an adult Bald >Eagle perched above the sailing clubhouse was probably what caused them all to >take flight. We then headed up to Summerhill, cruised Salt Road (quiet except for a few of Chickadees and two Red-breasted Nuthatches), then dropped down to Lake Como Road. There was a fresh coating of snow in the McIlroy Preserve, and we walked the yellow loop trail hoping for Ruffed Grouse. We never actually found the grouse but were rewarded by a set of fresh grouse tracks that we followed until they led out over thin ice. What was remarkable was that we could read so much of the bird's behavior from its tracks. The tracks began when the bird flew in from somewhere. Its tail hit the snow first followed 18 inches farther by side-by-side footprints followed another 12 inches by the set of tracks leading away. As the bird walked it flicked the ground with its tail. There were a couple of places where it stood still then turned sideways and back. At one point it hopped up on a thin log and walked along and upwards until jumping back to the ground and continuing. Nick was out plowing around the house on Lake Como and invited us to view his feeders, saying the only birds he had were Chickadees and Goldfinches. I was getting hungry and said "let's go get lunch". Dave overruled that with "we should at least take a look". A good thing: there were at least a dozen Pine Siskins coming to the feeders along with the other birds! We did eat after that - an indifferent, over-priced burger/fries/grilled cheese spread at the Lake Como Inn. Steve Fast: I remembered too late that wonderful roadside inn up near Bear Swamp! >From the Aurora boathouse we picked out a single White-winged Scoter, 7 (or >more?) Horned Grebes, and several distant rafts or Snow Geese. No loons and no >Eared Grebe. At this point it was already mid-afternoon, and we decided to >head over to the ice edge on the west side to look for white-winged gulls. Looking out from Cayuga Lake State Park we found a couple of Glaucous Gulls - one adult and one juvenile. Then, on a tip from Alexander Lees, we drove back to Van Cleef Lake to look for the 4 - 5 Iceland Gulls he had just seen there. Unfortunately, as we arrived the last of the gulls there were taking off for their evening roost on Cayuga Lake. So - we scooted back to Cayuga Lake SP and, in the failing light were finally able to pick out one Iceland Gull. I'm sure that I have missed other highlights from today (right now my light is failing, too). So I'd invite any of the others to chime in. 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/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/ --
