I went to Seneca Falls today, as did a number of other birders, looking for Snowy Owls and hoping for Gyrfalcon. So far as I know, no one has refound the Gyrfalcon seen on Thursday.
I managed to find only one Snowy Owl today. It was a sparsely-marked individual with deep blackish markings and plenty of bars in the tail. Adult female? It was perched on the highest possible perch to oversee the area, on the top of a grain elevator complex west of Rt 414, near the windmill, west of Lott Farm fairgrounds and well west of the airport. I heard that a Snowy was seen east of the Finger Lakes Regional Airport runways at some point, but I didn't see it. Best birds I had during several loops around the airport were a male Northern Harrier on Thorpe Road, and at least one Lapland Longspur in a Horned Lark flock I was told about on Hoster Rd south of Stahl Rd in a manure spread. There was open water along the southern end of Lower Lake Road SE of Seneca Falls on Cayuga Lake, and there were lots of swan there. Most were Tundra Swans, of course, but I was quite surprised to see a pair of BLACK SWANS swimming off the ice edge at the far southern end of the road. They're kind of unmistakable, being huge waterbirds with long, gracefully curving necks, red bills, and all black body plumage. But, seeing as how they are native to Australia, there is zero chance they were wild vagrants. They're popular in captivity, and I don't know of any established feral populations around. I looked for, but did not see, their white wingtips (all swans have white wingtips; the only non-domestic waterfowl that do, with one half of an exception), so I can't say if they were free-flying or wing-clipped. Totally cool, though. Their presence, along with the couple of thousand Tundra Swans made me want to find Mute and Trumpeter swans too to get my very first 4-swan day. I wasn't doing a great job of parsing the waterfowl, but fortunately I talked to my son, Jay, and his birding group, and they had in fact seen some Mute Swans and a single wing-tagged Trumpeter along the road. With their tip, I found a pair of Mutes and the wing-tagged juvenile Trumpeter to complete my four swan day. I don't know when to ever expect that to happen again! Just for the record, I do keep track of the free-flying exotic birds I see (including in the Basin, Bar-headed Goose, Egyptian Goose, Red-crested Pochard, and Eurasian Goldfinch). Fortunately, so does eBird! I won't count Black Swan on my year Basin list, but I do want to know when and where I saw it. Some of these exotics actually get established and become "countable" birds. I like to know where I first saw things like Monk Parakeet (Yellow Springs, Ohio) and Eurasian Collared-Dove (Marathon Key, Florida). Happy birding new year. Kevin Kevin McGowan Ithaca ________________________________ From: bounce-121130380-3493...@list.cornell.edu <bounce-121130380-3493...@list.cornell.edu> on behalf of Marty Schlabach <m...@cornell.edu> Sent: Saturday, January 7, 2017 6:28 PM To: Laura Stenzler; CAYUGABIRDS-L Subject: RE:[cayugabirds-l] Snowy at Lott farm I forgot to mention that the reason we were in the area was to stop at Hoover's kitchen cabinet shop, across the road from the airport. In conversation with the cabinetmaker, I asked if he had seen a snowy owl in the area. He looked sort of surprised, and then realized that's why all the cars were driving slowly around the area. He saw people with binoculars, but he said he thought they were coyote hunters. It didn't seem right to him, since coyote hunters usually drive pickup trucks with their dogs in the back, but most of the vehicles were cars, SUVs or crossovers. He'll now be on the lookout for a snowy. --Marty -----Original Message----- From: Marty Schlabach Sent: Friday, January 6, 2017 8:43 PM To: Laura Stenzler <l...@cornell.edu>; CAYUGABIRDS-L <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu> Subject: RE: Snowy at Lott farm We were there about 4:30pm today. We didn't spend much time looking, but didn't see a snowy at the airport, but did see one perched on top of the grain bins at the Lott farm along rt 414. We did see a male northern harrier near the airport. --Marty (& Mary Jean) =========================================== Marty Schlabach m...@cornell.edu 8407 Powell Rd. home 607-532-3467 Interlaken, NY 14847 cell 315-521-4315 =========================================== -----Original Message----- From: bounce-121128532-3494...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-121128532-3494...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Laura Stenzler Sent: Friday, January 6, 2017 1:08 PM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu> Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Snowy at Lott farm We saw one snowy owl at the Lott farm around noon today. Nothing at the airport on Martin Rd and no Gyrfalcon. Alas. Laura Laura Stenzler l...@cornell.edu -- 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/ -- -- 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/ -- -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
