I've had several spirit-lifting bird moments in northeast Ithaca over the
past few days.

* HERMIT THRUSH along St. Catherine's Circle on Saturday at 7 PM.  The
very occurrence of this species in our suburban neighborhood seemed
unusual enough.  This bird delivered further surprise and entertainment
with its vocalizations (a repeated, exquisitely gentle, high-pitched
*zeeeen*, quite unlike the "chuck" or "zhraaay" call notes I've heard from
other local Hermit Thrushes) and behavior (standing with a robin right in
the middle of the road and on an open lawn, as if pretending to be another
robin or maybe an honorary pipit, plus some more typical picturesque
perching low in the shadows).

* FOX SPARROW heard singing and RUSTY BLACKBIRDS heard and seen in the
treetops at Palmer Woods on Sunday morning.

* EASTERN SCREECH-OWL continuing along Siena Drive, unexpectedly out of
view on Saturday evening and maybe equally unexpectedly in view on both
Sunday morning and Monday early afternoon.  Today the owl was sleeping
with its chin down on its chest, face and ear tufts parallel to the
ground.  (I've had no screech-owl sightings anywhere else in our
neighborhood for more than a month, and no more sightings of two together
since the encounter I posted about in February.)

* Two sightings of an adult BROAD-WINGED HAWK migrating over St. Catherine
of Siena Church at about 1 PM on Monday.

* A pair of MERLINS has been conspicuous and very vocal around our
neighborhood for the past week, ranging over several blocks, but I don't
know where they are nesting.

Mark Chao

--

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/

--

Reply via email to