[cayugabirds-l] 2018 Cayuga Lake Basin First Records

[Dave Nutter]

The 2018 Cayuga Lake Basin First Records tables are up & running on the Cayuga 
Bird Club website Resources page here:
http://www.cayugabirdclub.org/Resources/cayuga-lake-basin-first-records

First, sorry for the delay. I prefer - but failed for awhile - to keep the list 
up to date so that everyone can easily look up what species have been found in 
what sort of place and who had the knack for finding them soonest in case they 
have any hints. The delay was because I took so long to revise the checklist 
upon which the yearly first records list is based. There were several reasons 
for the revision. 

First, the official taxonomic order has changed in several places. The new 
order now conforms with the current order in eBird.

Second, I went through eBird’s records to ensure that everything eBird had 
recorded for the Basin historically was on our list. 

Third, there are species that have shown up regionally but not shown up in the 
Basin - yet. These species may be of interest to many local birders. They won’t 
be checked off until they show up in the Basin, but perhaps some of them will 
show up here, because of their propensity to wander to the region and 
preference for habitats we may share. When that happens, I will celebrate not 
just the arrival of a new species but the fact that it can be included without 
another checklist revision!

Fourth, I wanted to indicate where in the region these as-yet out-of-basin-only 
species have been found. Paul Anderson, who does the web work for the club, has 
added a column on the Taxonomic table called “Notes”. One or more county names 
are listed in that column to the left of those species’ names. In one case, 
Trindade Petrel, a town name, Caroline, is listed instead, because the bird was 
found there within Tompkins County but outside of the Cayuga Lake Basin. For 
species with few or single records, a year or years follows the county name(s). 

Fifth, I wanted to indicate the rarity of some species which have been found in 
the basin. Species for which there are few or single records within the basin 
are preceded simply by year(s) they were found in the Basin, with no county 
name(s) listed. Some show interesting patterns. 

Sixth, Paul has made the Taxonomic table much easier to read by putting the 
Family names as headers, and by having the rows for species alternate white and 
gray. I want to emphasize that he did this, as well as cleaning up my work, 
very quickly and was not the cause of the delay.  

Anyway, the list is up, and filled in for the 120 species I’ve heard about in 
the Basin so far. Where the observer and location say “Ithaca CBC”, that means 
that multiple parties found the species in multiple places on January first, 
during our local Christmas Bird Count. The designation is a bit Ithaca-centric, 
but it’s a way of indicating that a species is generally already in the basin 
at the beginning of the year. If only one party discovered a species on 1 
January, then that party and the location are listed. For species only found 
outside the Ithaca CBC circle or after 1 January I try to list multiple parties 
of observers and locations of the birds if the observations occurred on the 
same day. 

As always, please let me know if some information looks wrong, or something is 
missing, or someone was left out. And please let me know when you are aware of 
a new species for 2018 found somewhere in the Cayuga Lake Basin. I try to keep 
an eye on eBird reports for the five counties which comprise most of the Basin, 
and reports on CayugaBirds-L, but sometimes things slip by. Thanks. 

- - Dave Nutter


- - Dave Nutter
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[cayugabirds-l] Cayuga Bird Club Field Trip report 1-21-18: Snowy Owl, Snow Buntings, Horned Larks and more!

[Diane Morton]

Ken Kemphues and I led a group of 11 enthusiastic birders on a half day
trip along the east side of Cayuga Lake and venturing into the farm fields
of King Ferry. We started at Stewart Park, where the ice still extends far
out so that views of birds on the lake were pretty distant. We had better
viewing from East Shore Park, where all of us were able to see LONG-TAILED
DUCKS, WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, and a raft of Aythya, which included both
GREATER and LESSER SCAUP, and a few CANVASBACK with the many REDHEADs.
COMMON GOLDENEYE and COMMON MERGANSERs were easy to spot, and a couple of
RED_BREASTED MERGANSERs were seen. A small flock of EASTERN BLUEBIRDS were
in a near tree, and Leigh and Wes spotted a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER there
just before the birds took flight.

At Ladoga we found more LONG-TAILED DUCKS, but not many other waterfowl
besides GOLDENEYE, CANADA GEESE and a single PIED-BILLED GREBE. A surprise
was finding an immature COOPER’S HAWK that perched for good scope views,
enabling us to see its yellow eye, banded tail and slightly mottled back.


We moved on to Myers Point, and while viewing the waterfowl there,
including RING-NECKED DUCKS, we noticed the gulls suddenly take to the sky.
When searching the sky for a possible raptor, Ken and Wes spotted a new
lump on the spit - a SNOWY OWL had landed there!  All of us got great
views- very close! The owl was resting pretty peacefully, but AMERICAN
CROWs started coming to check it out. The owl tried threatening postures
against three crows, but they drove it into flight. I believe Paul Anderson
was able to get a video of the Owl during this interval. Seeing this Snowy
Owl was a thrilling bonus for the field trip! We even heard its cries as it
flew low over the water being pursued by crows.


We next headed toward Belltown Dairy via Davis Road, looking for Horned
Larks or Snow Buntings, but found neither. Continuing toward King Ferry, we
turned on Center Road and were rewarded with about 20 SNOW BUNTINGs and
40-50 HORNED LARKs, many of them at the edge of the road making for good
viewing. Luckily auto traffic was nonexistent, so we were all able to get
well-positioned for spending some time looking at the birds, even seeing
the differences between male and female Horned Larks. As we left we passed
another large flock of Snow Buntings further down the road.


We took a break at the Corner Store in King Ferry and then went on to
Aurora. One BALD EAGLE was perched in the tree with the eagle’s nest near
Poplar Ridge Road and Route 90. A NORTHERN FLICKER and RED-BELLIED
WOODPECKER were active in the trees near the pullout. Further on, at the
Aurora Post Office parking area, we scoped the lake and added HORNED GREBEs
to our list.


We still had time to make it up to Union Springs to look through the ducks
on the North Mill Pond. Among the many REDHEADs were BUFFLEHEAD, GADWALL,
AMERICAN WIGEON, and a HOODED MERGANSER. MALLARDs were gathered near the
pond’s edge, and a couple of WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCHes and a TUFTED
TITMOUSE flitted above us.


It was a great trip overall - good looks at the local winter birds in good
light - with a great group of people. We really enjoyed the day.


- Diane Morton

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Re:[cayugabirds-l] Snowy Owl Myers Point

[Diane Morton]

Mobbed by crows - flying south now 9:40 am

Diane

On Sun, Jan 21, 2018 at 9:36 AM Diane Morton  wrote:

> Snowy Owl landed on the spit at Myers Point!
>

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[cayugabirds-l] Snowy Owl Myers Point

[Diane Morton]

Snowy Owl landed on the spit at Myers Point!

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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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