Re: [cayugabirds-l] Possible other RHW Nest

[Carol Keeler]

When I was there photographing the woodpeckers before all the babies fledged, I 
saw that one woodpecker was very interested in holes in a couple of trees.  It 
would look in or go part way in.  It never went all the way in.  It seems much 
too late for another nesting.  You were lucky to see one now that all the 
babies have fledged.

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 9, 2013, at 1:36 PM, Michele Mannella  wrote:

> I was there at May's Point yesterday afternoon, and watched one red-headed 
> woodpecker going in and out of another hole further north in the same grove 
> of dead trees. He would put his head in and pull it out, shaking the wood 
> dust off. Then he would go all the way in, disappear for a few seconds, then 
> stick his head out.  I don't recall anyone reporting this possible second 
> nest at May's Point.  
> 
> Michele
> Interlaken / Ovid
> 
> 
> On Sun, Sep 1, 2013 at 8:12 AM, Marie P. Read  wrote:
>> Yeah, I saw starlings in that hole several times when I was there last week.
>> 
>> Marie
>> 
>> Marie Read Wildlife Photography
>> 452 Ringwood Road
>> Freeville NY  13068 USA
>> 
>> Phone  607-539-6608
>> e-mail   m...@cornell.edu
>> 
>> http://www.marieread.com
>> 
>> ***NEW***  Music of the Birds Vol 1 ebook for Apple iPad now available from 
>> iTunes
>> 
>> http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/music-of-the-birds-v1/id529347014?mt=11
>> 
>> From: bounce-107886445-5851...@list.cornell.edu 
>> [bounce-107886445-5851...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Jay McGowan 
>> [jw...@cornell.edu]
>> Sent: Saturday, August 31, 2013 8:49 PM
>> To: Carol Keeler; CAYUGABIRDS-L
>> Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Possible other RHW Nest
>> 
>> That looks like the European Starling nest that was in the tree next to the 
>> woodpeckers.
>> 
>> -Jay
>> 
>> 
>> On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 7:18 PM, Carol Keeler 
>> mailto:carolk...@adelphia.net>> wrote:
>> Yesterday while photographing the Red Headed Woodpeckers and young, my 
>> friend John Garofalo took and interesting picture which I would like people 
>> to look at and comment on.  In the picture you will see a parent looking out 
>> of what we have believed to be the only nest hole.  In a tree to the right 
>> is a hole where two babies are looking out.  They appear to be even younger 
>> RHW young.  Please see if you agree or is this some other bird.  You can 
>> tell the hole is being actively used due to the whitewash down the front.  
>> These babies appear younger than the one that fledged yesterday.  Are they 
>> RHW babies or not?  I personally never saw a parent go to this hole while I 
>> was there-only the bottom of three hole.
>> 
>> http://www.pbase.com/carol_keeler_photo/image/152114694
>> --
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>> 
>> 
>> --
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>> Macaulay Library
>> Cornell Lab of Ornithology
>> jw...@cornell.edu
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[cayugabirds-l] Montezuma Towpath Rd Today 9/9/13

[david nicosia]

Had the day off so decided to check out Knox-Marcellus Marsh from Towpath Rd 
this morning.
My focus was shorebirds and it probably was the best so far this season for me 
personally.
I got great looks at a gorgeous BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER which was easily 
identifiable
in my scope. In addition, I also got on a more distant RED-NECKED PHALAROPE. I
got all "peep" species with great views of not-so-distant WHITE-RUMPED 
SANDPIPERS(there
were 2). One of these poor guys had a bad leg. Then I also got a nice look at a 
BAIRD'S SANDPIPER
with a bunch of PECTORALS, LEAST and SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS. This guy
also was not that far away as the mudflat has crept over enough that the view 
is much
closer from Towpath than East rd. The  number of PECTORAL SANDPIPERS is 
impressive.
I also had 6 STILT SANDPIPERS, and only 1 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER(this bird was
still colorful and not molted into non-breeding). There continues to be a 
decent number of
AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVERS(around 15 or so).  There was also a nice sized flock
of SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS too. I only counted 4 KILLDEER. Of course both GREATER 
and LESSER YELLOWLEGS continue to be pretty much everywhere, although numbers 
are 
down from last month.  I totaled 14 species of shorebirds. 

Also present was the continuing AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN which I finally got a 
decent photograph,
SANDHILL CRANE, many waterfowl including some newly arrived NORTHERN PINTAILS

and of course loads of waders. A PEREGRINE FALCON continued to terrorize the
poor shorebirds as they were often flying around. At one time, a nice group 
flew in pretty
close (relatively) to Towpath. There were also at least 2 immature BALD EAGLES 
on
the ground.  My species total for 2 hours was 63. 

Dave Nicosia 
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[cayugabirds-l] Nearby Ontario Brown-chested Martin Sighting!

[Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes]

The following was posted to NYSbirds-L:

Keep your eyes open!

Sincerely,
Chris T-H


Begin forwarded message:

From: Jeffery Davis mailto:jwdjw...@msn.com>>
Subject: [nysbirds-l] OT- Heads-up New York! Nearby Ontario Brown-chested 
Martin Sighting!
Date: September 9, 2013 2:42:07 PM EDT
To: NYSB mailto:nysbird...@cornell.edu>>
Reply-To: Jeffery Davis mailto:jwdjw...@msn.com>>

>From NARBA-

"Ontario: On Sep 9 around 9:15am, Brandon Holden, a member of the Ontario Bird 
Records Committee, observed a Brown-chested Martin fly in off of Lake Ontario 
from the northwest, turn eastwards upon nearing the shore, then steadily fly 
past (perhaps 250-300 ft up) until out of sight. The entire observation was 
probably 60-90 seconds. The bird has not been relocated. Find a link to 
description notes in the website report.

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/wHmfQ";



regards,
jeff

Downingtown, PA

Checkout our bird photos at the link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffamy/


Jeff Davis
https://www.facebook.com/jwdjwd67
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Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes
Field Applications Engineer
Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850
W: 607-254-2418   M: 607-351-5740   F: 607-254-1132
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp


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Re: [cayugabirds-l] Possible other RHW Nest

[Michele Mannella]

I was there at May's Point yesterday afternoon, and watched one red-headed
woodpecker going in and out of another hole further north in the same grove
of dead trees. He would put his head in and pull it out, shaking the wood
dust off. Then he would go all the way in, disappear for a few seconds,
then stick his head out.  I don't recall anyone reporting this possible
second nest at May's Point.

Michele
Interlaken / Ovid


On Sun, Sep 1, 2013 at 8:12 AM, Marie P. Read  wrote:

> Yeah, I saw starlings in that hole several times when I was there last
> week.
>
> Marie
>
> Marie Read Wildlife Photography
> 452 Ringwood Road
> Freeville NY  13068 USA
>
> Phone  607-539-6608
> e-mail   m...@cornell.edu
>
> http://www.marieread.com
>
> ***NEW***  Music of the Birds Vol 1 ebook for Apple iPad now available
> from iTunes
>
> http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/music-of-the-birds-v1/id529347014?mt=11
> 
> From: bounce-107886445-5851...@list.cornell.edu [
> bounce-107886445-5851...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Jay McGowan [
> jw...@cornell.edu]
> Sent: Saturday, August 31, 2013 8:49 PM
> To: Carol Keeler; CAYUGABIRDS-L
> Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Possible other RHW Nest
>
> That looks like the European Starling nest that was in the tree next to
> the woodpeckers.
>
> -Jay
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 7:18 PM, Carol Keeler  > wrote:
> Yesterday while photographing the Red Headed Woodpeckers and young, my
> friend John Garofalo took and interesting picture which I would like people
> to look at and comment on.  In the picture you will see a parent looking
> out of what we have believed to be the only nest hole.  In a tree to the
> right is a hole where two babies are looking out.  They appear to be even
> younger RHW young.  Please see if you agree or is this some other bird.
>  You can tell the hole is being actively used due to the whitewash down the
> front.  These babies appear younger than the one that fledged yesterday.
>  Are they RHW babies or not?  I personally never saw a parent go to this
> hole while I was there-only the bottom of three hole.
>
> http://www.pbase.com/carol_keeler_photo/image/152114694
> --
>
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>
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>
> --
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
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> Macaulay Library
> Cornell Lab of Ornithology
> jw...@cornell.edu
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Re: [cayugabirds-l] Montezuma Muckrace report from Plucky Mucksters.

[Judith Thurber]

I laughed and laughed as I read this, Dave.   Thank you for writing it!!!  
GREAT! F U N N Y!  Fabulous!
Judy Thurber
Liverpool

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 8, 2013, at 5:44 PM, Dave Nutter  wrote:

> The Montezuma Muckrace, the fundraising bird-a-thon for the Friends of the 
> Montezuma Wetlands Complex, was during the 24-hour period starting 7pm Friday 
> 6 September. The Cayuga Bird Club sponsored our team, The Plucky Mucksters, 
> which this year consisted of Gary Kohlenberg, Ann Mitchell, Susan Danskin, 
> and myself, Dave Nutter. (Note: The name "Plucky Mucksters" was coined years 
> ago by team founder and sometime leader, Bob McGuire, who did not participate 
> this year. The rest of us think this name is goofy and are considering next 
> year adopting a name with a less obscure bird reference, although perhaps 
> equally goofy. Some names are great, such as the stationary team "Sittidae" 
> and the biking team "The Un-Carbonated Wobblers". It'll take a lot of thought 
> to come up with something that good, and we're not known for such effort, but 
> 11 months of subconscious mulling plus a few minutes of actual fretting as 
> the deadline arrives may result in improvement.)
> 
> Once again we entered in the "Recreational" rather than the "Competitive" 
> category. This is in recognition of the well-established fact that we do not 
> constitute competition to several other teams, and that pretending otherwise 
> would result in crushed egos when a team whose average age is a third of ours 
> accumulates 40% more species of birds, as was the case with this year's 
> winning team of Cornell students. We also acknowledge that we are somewhat 
> handicapped by my dulled hearing, Susan's complete unfamiliarity with fall 
> warblers, Ann's balkiness when the rest of us clamber atop piles of road 
> construction debris for a better view into nearby weeds, and Gary's... 
> actually Gary is steady, well-studied, and observant. How did he end up on 
> our team? Our primary goal was to have fun, which of course means finding 
> birds, but which experience tells us does not mean wandering through clouds 
> of mosquitos all night wondering if the noises in the dark are simply other 
> lost souls making owl-like noises. We have also tried only staying up half 
> the night not finding owls, and we still ended up cranky, so our tradition is 
> to start at daybreak on Saturday morning. 
> 
> Our first stop was Mud Lock, chosen because it's close to where we enter the 
> Muckrace boundaries as we drive north from Ithaca, allowing us spend maximum 
> time in our own beds. It's also inspiring to have BALD EAGLE and OSPREY among 
> the first birds of the day, even though, as expected we encountered them 
> other places throughout the day. Here we saw and heard our first GREEN HERON 
> of at least 4 for the day, which also felt good because several people who 
> record night flight calls reported a major migration of them on Thursday 
> night. Perhaps they were arriving as well as leaving. Other Mud Lock dawn 
> phenomena include a flight of swallows toward the lake, presumably from 
> roosting sites in the Montezuma marshes, and a less substantial flight of 
> gulls from the lake toward Montezuma for more obscure reasons. Both these 
> groups are a challenge to ID high against a gray sky. Our biggest surprise at 
> Mud Lock was to see two flying COMMON LOONS (long necks in front of a humped 
> back; feet extended like a tail; long, narrow, pointed, rubbery wings 
> constantly flapping) high over the bay to our south. We were hoping to see a 
> Red-headed Woodpecker, which we saw there twice on scouting trips, but it did 
> not cooperate (nor did the Mays Point family, despite two visits there). 
> 
> The second major stop for us was Howland's Island. We could have driven onto 
> the island from the west on Carncross Road and even driven past the gate 
> whose lock combination was given to Muckrace teams, but we approached from 
> the traditional southeast side. There's good birding along the narrow, 2-mile 
> road from NYS-38 north of Port Byron, and it's satisfying to leave the car at 
> the end of the road in the floodplain forest and walk over the iron bridge 
> onto the quiet island. Shortly after our arrival we met a mixed foraging 
> flock of small birds. They were numerous, active, high in the tall trees, 
> backlit, and smaller than the leaves. Many birds were too poorly seen for us 
> to identify, but perhaps if we'd memorized all the fall warbler traits we'd 
> have done better. Another issue was that, despite being a "Recreational" 
> team, we decided to follow "Competitive" rules - 95% of species we listed had 
> to be observed by the whole team - because it's more fun if we all can share 
> a bird. It was challenging simply to point out these fast-moving birds, let 
> alone ID them, so several of our "dirty birds" for the day were from this 
> encounter. Shortly after the flock moved deeper into the 

[cayugabirds-l] Etna, NY: Night Migration Followup for 8-9 September

[Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes]

A quick observational browse through last night's recording data results in 
these highlights:

4 Black-billed Cuckoos
2 Hooded Warblers
1 Black-and-white Warbler
2 Lincoln's/Swamp Sparrows

Nothing really Earth-shattering as far as rarity, but it was definitely an 
active night.

Recently, I've been resting at night with a single earbud headphone plugged 
into one ear in order to listen in on the general nighttime activity. Last 
night, there were tons of calls from about 9pm through about 2am, then a 
gradual tapering to only sporadic calls the rest of the night. The morning 
thrush descent was very minimal at my location. There was one small descending 
flock around 5:34am, which included some Rose-breasted Grosbeak calls. There 
were some very distant thrush calls around 5:50-ish and a single close flyover 
Rose-breasted Grosbeak calling around 6:05am, but everything was pretty much 
shut down by 6:00am.

Thrush descent can be entirely hit-or-miss depending upon where the birds are 
during migration, just before the start of morning civil twilight (today it was 
at 6:10am).

I'd say that Rose-breasted Grosbeak was the species that dominated the night, 
followed by Swainson's Thrush. Early in the night, there was also a good 
passage of Green Herons. Throughout the night there were several Chestnut-sided 
Warblers.

After listening to the recent nights' migrations, I have been wondering about 
vocal activity vs actual birds in flight. Early in the night, birds are calling 
– seemingly everywhere. By the latter part of the night migration, vocal 
activity seriously drops off.

Why is this? I mean, even after a very quiet latter 3 1/2 hours, we can have a 
surprisingly actively vocal thrush descent. What is the theory for decreased 
contact/NFC calls as the night wears on? Are they all established in their 
individual flight patterns in the sky? Are they conserving energy by not 
vocalizing? Is there a relationship between very cold nights and decreased 
calling rates vs warm nights and consistent calling rates? If birds were 
descending earlier in the night we should observe decreased target density on 
RADAR; however, as Dave Nicosia mentioned, RADAR was still displaying active 
targets in the air as of 6am at our local station (BGM). Is there a generally 
accepted theory for decreased vocal activity into the night?

It has been fascinating to listen to and observe the gradual exodus of 
neotropical and other migrants from northern North America.

Thanks for any insight and good night-listening!

Sincerely,
Chris T-H

--
Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes
Field Applications Engineer
Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850
W: 607-254-2418   M: 607-351-5740   F: 607-254-1132
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp


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[cayugabirds-l] Montezuma Muckrace donations

[Gary Kohlenberg]

Donations are still welcome in the name of any team including the Pluck 
Mucksters.
Follow the Friends of Montezuma web page below where there is a link for 
Muckrace donations in the name of any of the participating teams.

http://friendsofmontezuma.org/

Thanks !

Gary

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