I live up on Sheffield Road, Ithaca/Enfield town line. I used to see many, probably hundreds, crows commuting up here every morning not long after it got light. They’d come from the southeast, City of Ithaca (I actually followed and backtracked them a couple of times), heading northwest. As they got up to this area, they’d start to disperse. Some would stop in the immediate area, many would keep going.
Then before dark, the commute would reverse. I haven’t seen it happening in the last couple of years, though. Deb From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Dave Nutter Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2021 12:19 AM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Large Crow flight About that time, I was walking toward the lakeshore at Treman to survey the waterfowl in the SW part of the lake. As I passed between the frozen marina and the woods of the Hog Hole swamp, I saw an estimated 450 crows commuting east overhead. It sounded like there were more on the way but not yet visible. The light was starting to dim, and I chose to look at the birds on the lake, so it’s possible that hundreds more crows commuted behind my back. There were hundreds of ducks of at least a dozen species stretching north into the distance, nothing new, but lots of fun if you don’t stress about numbers. (Clarification: hundreds of Redheads, Canvasbacks and Common Mergansers, and much smaller numbers of the other 9 species I saw). I didn’t count the geese on the lake, mostly along the west shore, but did note that about 80 Canada Geese flew low both north and south from the middle of Allan Treman State Marine Park just south of the knoll. My guess is that they had been trying to graze where the land was windswept, but it looked like tough going. An immature Iceland Gull continues in the SW corner of the lake. Lots of Great Black-backs dominating the ice-covered Red Lighthouse Breakwater. Many of the Herring Gulls are now in sleek breeding plumage. No Ring-billeds that I saw. 4 Double-crested Cormorants rested atop the piling cluster. - - Dave Nutter On Feb 22, 2021, at 5:39 PM, Elaina M. McCartney <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Approximately 5:20 pm today I noticed a steady flight of Crows from my vantage just north of Hog Hole, heading approximately toward Cayuga Heights/Cornell Campus, moving in the approximately the opposite direction of the large morning flight of 2/17. I don’t know the extent of today’s flight, I assume it had been going on for a while before I looked up and noticed—pretty gray out there. I don’t have complete numbers, but did a quick count of maybe 100+ birds in less than a minute. Looked like an evening “return” flight. Elaina From: <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> on behalf of Elaina McCartney <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Reply-To: Elaina McCartney <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2021 at 9:27 AM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Large Crow flight Shortly before sunrise this morning I noticed out the window a stream (actually a river) of Crows flying north following the west shore of Cayuga Lake. To attempt to count them I recorded a 20 sec video, and was able to count 270 by examining it slowly. The steady flight, which seemed to originate somewhere southish of Hog Hole, lasted at least 15 minutes at a rate of approximately 800 per minute. I don’t know how long it had been going on when I first noticed it, but there were upwards of 12,000 individuals while I watched them pass at a steady rate. Some stragglers in groups of 8-10 followed up until about 7 am. During the GBBC I observed three immature Bald Eagles simultaneously from my window, making passes over a large raft of aythya and Canada Geese, just north of Hog Hole. It was the first time I’d seen more than two at a time. Yesterday I observed a mature Bald Eagle land in a nearby tree during a brief snow flurry. Last fall a neighbor had limbs removed from a large, dying red oak tree for safety, and constructed an osprey platform on what’s left of the tree. Hoping there will be some nesting interest. Elaina -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<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/[email protected]/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/ --
