[cayugabirds-l] Eastern Whip-poor-wills, Northeast Ithaca

[Jay McGowan]

Jeff Doyle heard an EASTERN WHIP-POOR-WILL in his backyard on Muriel Street
early this morning, so a couple of us in the neighborhood listened from the
south end of Tareyton Drive this evening and were not disappointed: one
bird started singing from well to the south around 8:15 and continued
intermittently for a couple of long bouts followed by a couple of shorter
ones before falling silent a little after 8:30. A second bird chimed in
briefly during one of the bouts, but it was impossible to tell which
direction it was coming from, only that it was farther away. Seemingly to
the south or southeast from our vantage as well. One of the birds was seen
briefly silhouetted against the sky hawking insects from high up in a line
of white pines.

https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S36376856

-- 
Jay McGowan
Macaulay Library
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
jw...@cornell.edu

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[cayugabirds-l] White-crowned Sparrow

[W. Larry Hymes]

Our first WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW of the year popped into our yard around 
7:00 this evening (2 birds).


Larry

--


W. Larry Hymes
120 Vine Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
(H) 607-277-0759, w...@cornell.edu



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[cayugabirds-l] Farmers market

[Carol Cedarholm]

Green Heron, Baltimore Oriole and 2 killdeer near Farmer's Market on
Waterfront trail this morning.
Carol Cedarholm

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[cayugabirds-l] Montezuma Audubon Center 11th Annual Wildlife Festival Sat. May 6

[Chris Lajewski]

The Montezuma Audubon Center is looking forward to celebrating 10 years of 
connecting people of all ages with the birds of Central NY and the Finger Lakes 
Region through the 11th Annual Wildlife Festival on Sat. May 6th from 10 am - 3 
pm. There will be something for everyone at this family-friendly event 
including guided canoeing excursions on Crusoe Creek and bird watching walks 
led by NYSDEC and USFWS Wildlife Biologists. Warblers, Vireos, Orioles, 
Tanagers, Flycatchers and more will be singing in the trees and soaring 
overhead. Details on all the great activities can be found at 
http://ny.audubon.org/montezuma. Admission for all the fun is $5/person, 
$20/family.  We look forward to seeing you Saturday, May 6th!

Chris Lajewski
Center Director
Montezuma Audubon Center
2295 State Route 89, Savannah, NY 13146
315-365-3588
clajew...@audubon.org
http://ny.audubon.org/montezuma
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[cayugabirds-l] Grosbeak

[Carol Keeler]

Just after I read that Marie had a Grosbeak, a male Grosbeak showed up at my 
feeder in Auburn. 

Sent from my iPad

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[cayugabirds-l] Rose-breasted Grosbeak

[Marie P. Read]

A handsome male Rose-breasted Grosbeak just arrived and is singing from a tree 
in my yard!

Marie





Marie Read Wildlife Photography
452 Ringwood Road
Freeville NY  13068 USA

Phone  607-539-6608
e-mail   m...@cornell.edu

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[cayugabirds-l] Connecticut Hill

[Dave Gislason]

While waking on Connecticut Hill yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised by a 
small flock of white-throated sparrow flitting about the forest floor.
Dave

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Re: [cayugabirds-l] Tanager

[Donna Lee Scott]

I had a SCARLET TANAGER singing from treetops here in yard on Lansing Station 
Rd. Earlier, too. FOY for me!

Donna Scott
Lansing
Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 28, 2017, at 7:54 AM, Brad Walker 
> wrote:

Ann Mitchell and I had an early Scarlet Tanager this morning at Sapsucker 
Woods. It flew over to the west side and was moving through the woods there 
singing.

Brad
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[cayugabirds-l] Mt Pleasant Barred Owl!

[Marie P. Read]

Just back from a walk up Mt Pleasant Road, during which the big surprise was a 
Barred Owl heard calling from the woods north of the ex-sheep barns between the 
two hills. First time I've ever heard one up here (although they surely have 
been present in the past). As I continued, I was musing that I hadn't yet heard 
a Ruffed Grouse drumming here this spring, and as if on cue one started 
drumming from the woods on the south side of the road!

Another heard-bird was my first Baltimore Oriole in the Cornell Arboretum 
earlier this morning. Another birder I met mentioned that he'd also heard one 
near the Mundy Wildflower Garden.

SPRING!

Marie



Marie Read Wildlife Photography
452 Ringwood Road
Freeville NY  13068 USA

Phone  607-539-6608
e-mail   m...@cornell.edu

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[cayugabirds-l] Monday Night Seminar + Lunchtime talk: Dr. Christine Sheppard, American Bird Conservancy

[Marc Devokaitis]

Good morning!



May 1st is the next Monday Night Seminar at the Cornell Lab. Our speaker,
Dr. Christine Sheppard from the American Bird Conservancy, will also be
giving a special lunchtime lecture earlier in the day. See below for
information on both events.  Hope you can join us!

We will be streaming the EVENING seminar live. Bookmark
http://dl.allaboutbirds.org/cornelllab-monday-night-seminars for quick
access on Monday evening.

-Marc



*May 1, Noon–1:00 p.m.*



Cornell Lab of Ornithology Visitor Center Auditorium



*Speaker:* Dr. Christine Sheppard, Bird Collisions Campaign Manager,
American Bird Conservancy


*The Science Behind Bird Collisions and Bird-Friendly Recommendations*


When Christine Sheppard first started started working with the American
Bird Conservancy in 2009 to raise awareness about bird mortality from
window collisions, she quickly discovered that there was virtually no
science or basis for most recommendations. A monitoring program she
coordinated for the Wildlife Conservation Society Center for Global
Conservation, designed to incorporate the latest bird-friendly
recommendations, was the first investigation to see whether those
recommendations actually worked. Many did not. Christine has been digging
into the problem ever since and will share her finding from many studies,
most not directly about collisions of any sort, that have important
applications for explaining what solutions work and why.







*May 1, 7:30pm – 9:00pm*



*Speaker: *Dr. Christine Sheppard, Bird Collisions Campaign Manager,
American Bird Conservancy



Cornell Lab of Ornithology Visitor Center Auditorium



*Bird Mortality From Collisions With Glass: What we’ve learned, what we
need to know, what you can do*



You probably think that you can see glass – but long ago, you learned a
concept – glass is an invisible barrier or reflective illusion – that birds
never understand. As many as a billion birds die each year in the U.S.,
nearly half of them on home windows. In the last decade, many scientists
have contributed pieces to the puzzle of how birds really see the world.
This has established a basis for developing new solutions for existing
glass, as well as materials and design strategies for creating new,
bird-friendly buildings. Most architects, urban planners – most people –
don’t understand why birds are important and how big the collisions problem
is. Virtually everyone has seen or heard a bird hit glass, but think of it
as a rare occurrence. Dr. Christine Sheppard will discuss the tools we have
to solve the problem and the big job ahead getting those solutions
implemented. However, this is one conservation issue where individuals can
take immediate action and see immediate results.




Marc Devokaitis

Public Information Specialist

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

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[cayugabirds-l] Am. Redstart SSW Powerline cut

[Stuart Krasnoff]

Make Calling at East end of powerline cut now. 

>From the semi-opposable thumbs of SB Krasnoff via iPhone
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[cayugabirds-l] White-crowned sparrow on Wilson trail north.

[Stuart Krasnoff]

Seen by Becky Hanson and me a few yards west if the feeder blind 0900 h

>From the semi-opposable thumbs of SB Krasnoff via iPhone
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Re:[cayugabirds-l] New arrivals

[Geo Kloppel]

Incidentally, there were no disemboweled toads on the dike earlier this 
morning, but at this moment I'm sitting at the breakfast table looking down 
toward the pond, and I can see three Crows hopping around in the grass down 
there, so I imagine they are starting the feast.

-Geo

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 28, 2017, at 9:20 AM, Geo Kloppel  wrote:
> 
> Newly arrived in my West Danby yard this morning were Gray Catbird, 
> Chestnut-sided Warbler,
> Nashville Warbler and Ovenbird.
> 
> I usually wind up flushing the early morning ducks off my little pond before 
> I can get close, but this morning I got lucky with a pair of Wood Ducks, and 
> achieved a one-duck wide binocular field. 
> 
> After flushing them, I walked along the dike, counting the toads in the 
> water. I spotted 136 of them, many in flagrante amplecto. They'd had a big 
> night: this morning there are lots of egg strings, where yesterday were none!
> 
> -Geo
> 

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[cayugabirds-l] Follow-up regarding dead Double-crested Cormorant

[Diane Traina]

On April 15, Sandy Wold posted the message below to the list serve,
regarding a dead Double-crested Cormorant. I was recently out at Jetty
Woods and saw the individual she referred to. I took some pictures (see
attached) and I think I discovered what killed the cormorant. It appears it
got its wing impaled on a tree branch and was horribly stuck as a result --
a very unfortunate end for such a lovely bird. I wonder how often this
happens.

Diane Traina

Subject: Dead Cormorant in Tree at Jetty Woods
From: Sandy Wold 
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2017 11:55:19 -0400
X-Message-Number: 1

Yesterday early evening at Jetty Woods, after I picked up a few
handfuls of styrofoam
cup aquatic debris deposited after recent flooding, I noticed the entire
herd of cormorants were back, and one was dangling from a tree.  The others
went about perching normally in the tree. Bald-headed Eagle?

This bird had what looked to me like breeding plumage (black tufts on top of
head).  I could not see any orange and not sure if that was because of the
angle.  Do birds lose their color after death?  If so, how long is it before
the color starts to diminish?
Sandy

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[cayugabirds-l] New arrivals

[Geo Kloppel]

Newly arrived in my West Danby yard this morning were Gray Catbird, 
Chestnut-sided Warbler,
Nashville Warbler and Ovenbird.

I usually wind up flushing the early morning ducks off my little pond before I 
can get close, but this morning I got lucky with a pair of Wood Ducks, and 
achieved a one-duck wide binocular field. 

After flushing them, I walked along the dike, counting the toads in the water. 
I spotted 136 of them, many in flagrante amplecto. They'd had a big night: this 
morning there are lots of egg strings, where yesterday were none!

-Geo


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[cayugabirds-l] Catbird

[Donna Lee Scott]

FOY GREY CATBIRDs in my yard this morning.

Donna Scott
Lansing
Sent from my iPhone

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[cayugabirds-l] American redstart

[Kenneth J. Kemphues]

Came home from birding Hawthorne orchard to find an American redstart singing 
in the spruces.

Ken Kemphues

Sent from my iPad
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[cayugabirds-l] Sapsucker Woods this morning

[Brad Walker]

In addition to the tanager there were several more migrants around
Sapsucker Woods this morning:

Baltimore Oriole, Warbling Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, many Yellow-rumped
Warblers, Common Yellowthroat, Gray Catbird, Great Crested Flycatcher and a
group of at least 100 White-throated Sparrows moving through the brush.

I also watched a Great Blue Heron carrying a stick  as it headed towards
Route 13, seen from the powerline cut.

- Brad

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[cayugabirds-l] Palm warblers

[Laurie Ray]

Everywhere around the swan pen this morning, along with yellow and yellow 
rumpled warblers. Magical!

Laurie Ray
Etna, NY

Sent from my phone that tries to help
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[cayugabirds-l] OTB: Spring Migration Notes...By a Murderer

[Marty Schlabach]

Interesting spring migration story.   --Marty


Sent: Friday, April 28, 2017 5:06 AM
To: Marty Schlabach 
Subject: Biodiversity Heritage Library

Biodiversity Heritage Library



Spring Migration Notes...By a 
Murderer

Posted: 27 Apr 2017 05:30 AM PDT
By Gretchen Rings
Reference & Interlibrary Loan Librarian
The Field Museum

On November 5, 1950, The Field Museum [the Chicago Museum of Natural History at 
the time] Curator of Mammalogy Colin Sanborn received an extraordinary letter, 
which began as follows:
Dear Colin,
I should like to make a rather unusual request of you. Some twenty-five years 
ago I gave the then Field Museum several specimens from my bird collection. 
Included among them was a habitat group of Kirtland's Warblers, consisting of 
the two adults and four nestlings in the nest, mounted by Ashley Hine...I know 
that the Museum used to have souvenir photograph postcards of many of its 
mounted groups on sale to the public. Could you find out for me whether such a 
photo was ever made of this Kirtland's Warbler group, and if so, let me know 
how I can get one?

It wasn't the request itself that was so unusual: individuals (or their 
descendants) frequently inquired about a specimen donated to the museum. It was 
the letter's author, in this case, that made it stand out: Nathan Leopold, Jr. 
Prior to becoming part of the infamous duo Leopold and Loeb, convicted for 
kidnapping and murdering Bobby Franks, a 14-year-old neighbor, Leopold had been 
a birder and ornithologist. Writing from prison in Joliet, Illinois, he hoped 
to receive a photograph of a group of specimens he'd donated as a very young 
man.

In addition to specimens from Loeb--The Field Museum also has a Cooper's hawk 
and a Praying Mantis--the Library owns one of only a couple of known extant 
copies of a booklet called Spring Migration Notes of the Chicago 
Area that Leopold helped 
compile. He was just 15-years-old at the time the booklet was published.
[https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yPIs5Mh19ZE/WP5lgh-XjBI/Gw4/vr1GZWCi5rYmWNugEBDYnXI90sfwVU2vwCLcB/s400/springmigrationn00wats_0003.jpg]

Watson, James D, George Porter Lewis, and Nathan Freudenthal Leopold. 1920. 
Spring migration notes of the Chicago area. [Chicago]: [G.W. Lewis Pub. Co.]. 
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47497174. Digitized by the Field Museum 
of Natural History Library.


Joshua Engel, a research assistant in the Field Museum's Integrative Research 
Center writes, "This little booklet has so much history, it's hard to know even 
where to begin. Let's start with the fact that the first author, James D. 
Watson, is the father of one of the most famous scientists of the 20th century, 
also named James D. Watson, who 
along with Francis Crick is credited with the discovery of the structure of 
DNA. But that's the least of it. The third author is even more intriguing. A 
budding young ornithologist, Nathan 
Leopold would spend the bulk of 
his adult life in prison for the murder of Bobby Franks, one of the most famous 
crimes of the 20th century."

James D. Watson the younger describes how his father met Leopold, "It was in 
Jackson Park in 1919 that Dad had met the extraordinarily talented but socially 
awkward sixteen-year-old University of Chicago student Nathan Leopold, who was 
equally obsessive about spotting rare birds. In June 1923, Leopold's wealthy 
father financed a birding expedition so Nathan and my dad could go to the jack 
pine barrens above Flint, Michigan, in search of the Kirtland warbler. In their 
pursuit of this rarest of all warblers, they were accompanied by their fellow 
Chicago ornithologists George Porter Lewis and Sidney Stein, and in addition by 
Nathan's boyhood friend Richard Loeb, whose family helped form the growing 
Sears, Roebuck store empire."

The Field Museum's copy of Spring Migration Notes of The Chicago 
Area, published in 1920, is now 
stored in the Mary W. Runnells Rare Book 
Room. Because 
of its historical value, it was added to the Biodiversity Heritage 
Library, including the type-written, 
hand-signed letter on page four from young Nathan Leopold to Ruthven Deane, a 
leading ornithologist of his time and a resident of Chicago, who eventually 
donated part of his collection of specimens to The Field Museum (as Leopold did 
when he went to jail). The