[cayugabirds-l] Glaucous Gulls and merlin

2016-02-20 Thread Meena Madhav Haribal 
Hi all,

I decided to walk Waterfront trail from Stewart Park side to Farmers Market and 
also look for Great-horned owls.  I decided to do only with binoculars and no 
scope.

There were thousands of Redheads scattered all around the south-end of the lake 
and not in a tight group as we see them very often in winter. Among them, I 
spotted a few Common Mergansers and Scaups. There were lots of gulls sitting 
along the edge of the ice and in the water.  So I was scanning for a white 
winged gull. I did not see any. I continued  walking. As I was coming to the 
Rowing club end suddenly all gulls took to the air. I did not see anything that 
could have spooked them. I thought that was good time to look for white winged 
gulls. After I scanned a few gulls from one side, I was soon on  a white winged 
gull. I followed it for some time in my binocular view. There came a second 
white looking gull t as big as the Glaucous for short time in my view. But I 
tried to follow the first  bird, So I lost sight of the second bird. Both birds 
were flying next to each other for some time one had some darker colors. My 
brain did not take in all the details, but it looked different from the first 
one. I thought it might be another Glaucous juvenile.  I hope I will get chance 
to study lot more of these Glaucous and Iceland Gulls in a next few days in 
Iceland! It seems by summer Iceland Gulls become scarcer in Iceland!


I later searched the Golf course for GHO nest but I did not see any signs. 
Interestingly in one of the oaks, right in the center where several branches 
were coming out, I saw a white egg like shape. I was excited. so I went closer 
to look at it closely. It turned out to be a  golf ball!


There were lots of Canada Geese on the course. At one point there was lots of 
honking going on. So I looked at the location form where the noise was coming. 
In the center of several geese there were two groups of geese of each about 5 
to 6 birds. Each side was facing the other side and honking and walking closer 
to meet in the middle.  One stood in front of another from the other group and 
honked in its face. Second chased away one from the other group and third also 
did the same and rest of them stood facing each other a meter away and honking. 
It was so funny to watch them. I wonder what was all that about, while the 
others peacefully continued to feed around these guys. I wish I had my video 
camera to shoot the behavior.


Then I continued the walk and took a turn and headed back to Stewart Park. As I 
was nearing the TCAT garage a falcon flew over from IHS and flew fairly low 
over the golf course towards the geese. It turned out to be a Merlin.


In the cottonwoods of the Stewart Park, there was an Eastern Bluebird singing a 
strange repeated single note call which I have never heard before.


Overall it was a very pretty day to be out  walking!


Cheers

Meena


Meena Haribal
Ithaca NY 14850
42.429007,-76.47111
http://www.haribal.org/
http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/
Ithaca area moths: https://plus.google.com/118047473426099383469/posts
Dragonfly book sample pages: http://www.haribal.org/dragonflies/samplebook.pdf








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[cayugabirds-l] Eagles "everywhere"

2016-02-20 Thread AB Clark 
Feb 20 2016  1045 Freeville:  Two adult Bald Eagles soared over 38 just S of 
the intersection with Hile School Road, one of which soared E up Hile School Rd 
and across Ed Hill RD (in and out and into the basin).. They stayed very high; 
an adult Red-tailed Hawk soared with them over Rt 38 and I thought briefly that 
it was going to try a little chasing, but I think they were just riding the 
same thermal.

1330 Stevenson Rd:  A Bald Eagle (3rd year with eye stripe) 
soared from the E over the Stevenson Road compost mounds, bringing up almost 
every bird, crow, gull, etc and left by way of the Pheasant Pens.  Not the same 
one as the two that Kevin saw there earlier, based on his pictures. 

1530 NE Ithaca:  A juvenile Bald Eagle soared N to S across 
NE Elementary School, across Christopher Circle and disappeared to the SE, 
eliciting some strong calling from  our Oldest Crow (18 years, 10 mos old) and 
her family.   She has seen some changes in the number of urban avian predators 
in her time!

Seems to be a lot of eagles around.   Perhaps it is time for juveniles and 
immatures to leave the vicinity of adult nesting areas?  I don’t know enough 
about eagle life histories.

Anne
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[cayugabirds-l] Glaucous Gull and hybrid at compost

2016-02-20 Thread Kevin J. McGowan 
Finally, I had an interesting gull at the compost in 2016. I've done 13 crow 
censuses out there this year, and have had lots of Herring and Great 
Black-backed gulls, but only a few individual Ring-billed Gulls and a 1cy 
Lesser Black-backed Gull to add to that. Today I had an adult GLAUCOUS GULL, 
first loafing in the field above the piles, then actively feeding on the piles. 
It's probably the same bird that I've seen at Stewart Park, and the same one 
that Jay saw at the compost in January. But, it's my first white-winged gull at 
the compost in 2016.

I also had what I believe to be a so-called "Nelson's Gull," a hybrid of 
Herring and Glaucous gull. It was a  2nd or 3rd cycle bird. Big, flat head, 
sharply bicolored bill. It had some mantle feathers coming in, which were 
whiter than surrounding Herring Gulls. Wing tips were dark but silverish with 
pale edges. Again lighter then nearby Herring Gulls. There are always Herring 
Gulls around that are very similar, including the non-black wingtips, but this 
one had mostly white tertials and greater secondary coverts that looked 
different. I found several 1st or 2nd cycle Herrings with similar coverts, but 
not the whole Glaucousy package.

Perhaps the coolest birds were the two immature BALD EAGLES that terrorized the 
compost crowd for a while. Both eagles were flying over at same time. Both very 
white in body and wings, one with a darker head. They were distinguishable, but 
they looked so much alike one wonders if they are siblings traveling together. 
We still have so much to learn about animal movements and associations!

Photos in the checklist at 
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S27703623.

Kevin

Kevin J. McGowan, Ph.D.
Instructor
Home Study Course in Bird Biology
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Ithaca, NY 14850
hst...@cornell.edu
607-254-2452


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[cayugabirds-l] Cayuga Bird Club Field Trip 2-20-16

2016-02-20 Thread Diane Morton 
Eight people joined Ken and me for a half-day field trip to look for birds
on the lake and in the fields of Lansing.  It was a gorgeous day!  So
different from our windy and freezing scouting day. Today the sky was blue,
the light was excellent, and temperature rose into the upper 50’s by the
end of the trip!


We started out at East Shore Park, where we mostly observed Common
Mergansers and Common Goldeneye. Looking across the lake, we saw that most
of the ducks were concentrated on the west side. We were glad that we had
asked permission from Elaina M. to bring the group to her property
overlooking the southwest corner of the lake. This is where thousands of
Aythya had spread out.  The ducks glowed in the sunlight; in addition to
the huge numbers of Redheads, we saw many handsome Canvasbacks, lesser
numbers of both Greater and Lesser Scaup, and a few scattered Ring-necked
Ducks.  Closer to shore we saw a single American Wigeon among the Mallards
and Black Ducks.  John Confer spotted a distant male Long-tailed Duck, that
all of us were able to see between its diving disappearances.  A young Bald
Eagle was at the ice edge.  When it flew up, a wave of ducks rose off the
lake with a machine-like hum of flapping wings and swirled in the sky in
front of us.  So many birds in the sky at once!  But none of them resolved
into the Tufted Duck that was reported on the lake this week.


We next went to Myers Point, Salt Point and Ladoga.  While the lake was not
too rough at Myers, there also weren’t many birds to see beyond the usual
gulls, Mallards and Common Mergansers.  We could see a pair of White-winged
Scoters closer to Salt Point, and moved to that area for better viewing.
The scoters were actively diving, but everyone got excellent looks, as they
were fairly close in.  The male’s white eye mark and bright orange bill
stood out sharply in the sunlight.  John spotted a lovely male Wood Duck
here as well, which swam to shore and hunkered down among the Canada
Geese.  Common Goldeneye were doing their head thrust displays.  We also
saw a male Hooded Merganser.  Over at Ladoga, we added American Coots and a
couple of Double-crested Cormorants to our list.


We drove out Lansingville Road to look for field birds—and found them!  We
stopped for a small flock of Horned Larks, and then a larger flock of more
than 60 Snow Buntings flew up in the same general area.  We scoped these
birds for a while, which unfortunately were not very close, but we found no
Longspurs.

On Fenner Road, we heard more Horned Larks, and spent some time trying to
get better views of a couple of sparrows that were hiding in the ditch.
Ken saw that one was a Savannah Sparrow, but no one else got a good view.
The other bird appeared to be a Song Sparrow.


On our way back along route 34B, we had a Rough-legged Hawk flying
overhead.  This was a very enjoyable trip with a great group of people on a
beautiful day!

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[cayugabirds-l] Pintail ducks ... Union Springs

2016-02-20 Thread job121830 
Fri. 19 Feb. 2015 about 4 p.m.  on Mill pond along Rte. 90  I observed:2 Male & 1 female PINTAIL ducks close to the East side of the pond.Also saw redheads, mallards, gadwall, buffleheads, A. wigeon & Canada geese.Mill pond & outlets from Mill & Factory St. ponds, have sheltered several thousand Canadas since more of the lake has been frozen, with many also over around Frontenac Island. We see thousands of geese coming in to roost about 4 p.m..Factory St. pond still has a few ducks, VERY FEW compared to the abundant numbersin yrs. past. Some days I'm lucky if I  see more than two. The pond looks dead withno obvious plants. While ducks dive, I see few there or on Mill coming up with any plants.For those who voiced concern about the Scout project last yr., the path was made & nowyou can see 6 benches placed for "viewing comfort." The far western one, I believe, isplaced in a bed of poison ivy, so beware.Fritzie Blizzard

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