Today Bob McGuire, Susan Danskin & I made a relatively quick trip around Cayuga Lake. We skipped many usual stops but still found many interesting birds including:
* EASTERN MEADOWLARK south of Burdick Hill Rd in Lansing and also west of NYS-90 immediately south of the Long Point Winery (Town of Ledyard). 2 NORTHERN HARRIERS in fields along Lake Rd nearby. * HORNED GREBES in winter plumage and in confusing transitional plumage off the bluffs between Long Pt SP and Aurora. On the landward side we watched a pitched battle between 2 SONG SPARROWS that lasted several minutes, including multiple bouts on the ground with one pinning the other down and pecking at it. * An adult BALD EAGLE was in the nest by Paine’s Creek on the south edge of Aurora. Same with the nest along the far shore SW of Mud Lock but this was attended by another adult in a nearby tree. * 5 TREE SWALLOWS foraging over the Frontenac Harbor Marina in Union Springs * As we pulled in to the driveway by the Montezuma NWR Visitor Center at 10:45am we saw a large dark bird overhead flying with a dihedral but not a Turkey Vulture. It went north beyond trees before we were satisfied, so we drove directly to the mucklands on NYS-31 and pulled over at the Potatoes building at 11am where we all got extended views of the adult GOLDEN EAGLE which continued circling, flapping and gliding north. * in the pond northeast of the Potatoes building we saw 2 male BLUE-WINGED TEAL close to NYS-31 and farther from NYS-31 in the same pool a male EURASIAN WIGEON along with many NORTHERN PINTAIL and some AMERICAN WIGEON as well as other ducks. * A calling SANDHILL CRANE flew over the mucklands to the south. * Over Martens Tract in Savannah we saw a COMMON RAVEN flying southwest. * A few thousand SNOW GEESE in Knox-Marsellus but we did not see any Ross’s Geese. Four GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE continued in the northern portion as well among CANADA GEESE. We also saw a light ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK from East Road. * As we approached the Osprey platform south of Dean’s Cove we saw a light-bellied, brown-above, vertically perched raptor on the perching post above the empty platform. It turned out to be a RED-TAILED HAWK. We also met someone at Myers who reported a possible Osprey at Salt Point shortly before we arrived, but we did not refind it. Maybe we just aren’t lucky enough, but I think we were pretty fortunate today. —Dave Nutter -- 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/ --
