No doubt Susan Danskin is tired after driving 'round the lake today, or maybe it's just taking her awhile to compose the verses of haiku to recount the Cayuga Bird Club field trip as she intended. Just in case she's decided not to give a report, here's some highlights.
Two cars left the Lab of O shortly after 0730, with Susan, me, Klaus (whose last name I missed), Judy T (whose last name I'm afraid I'll mess up), Larry & Sara Jane Hymes, Gary Kohlenberg, and Ann Mitchell. Our first stop was East Shore Park, where we saw plenty of CANADA GEESE, MALLARDS, COMMON GOLDENEYE, REDHEADS (a few close by, and scads of them near the far shore with at least a few CANVASBACKS mixed in), a few GADWALL, AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS, and COMMON MERGANSERS. The usual 3 gull species loafed on the ice to our south. The highlight for me was finding an adult male WHITE-WINGED SCOTER swimming near the red lighthouse. In the Myers Point neighborhood we found, in addition to the GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE reported elsewhere, the 2 adult (1 with a wing awry) & 1 immature SNOW GOOSE, more of most of the previously mentioned waterfowl and gulls, plenty of AMERICAN COOTS, and a perched COOPER'S HAWK which flew off sneakily while most of us were pointing at books and discussing field marks. This was the first of 3 Cooper's Hawks seen today. >From the Triangle Diner those who spent less time indoors saw a PILEATED >WOODPECKER. On Lake Rd in Ledyard in the open fields at the top we saw a female NORTHERN HARRIER, several RED-TAILED HAWKS, and a HORNED LARK. My car missed seeing a fly-by SHARP-SHINNED HAWK reported by the other car despite our use of walkie-talkies. In brushy woods by the entrance to Long Point State Park we saw lots of HOUSE FINCHES, EASTERN BLUEBIRDS, and AMERICAN ROBINS, along with a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD, a couple of NORTHERN FLICKERS, and - first noticed at quite a distance by Susan - a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER. >From the Wells College boathouse in Aurora we saw a total of 4 HORNED GREBES. >From the village offices in Union Springs we saw many waterfowl along the ice >edge parallel to shore. Most abundant were REDHEADS, but also present were >CANVASBACK, RING-NECKED DUCK, GREATER & LESSER SCAUP, BUFFLEHEAD, GADWALL, >MALLARDS, AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS, lots of COMMON MERGANSERS, and 8 distant SWANS >- at least 1 and presumably the rest also TUNDRA. Somewhere between stops we saw a male AMERICAN KESTREL on a wire bobbing his tail. In the Village of Cayuga there was a wide swath of open water near the east shore occupied by many waterfowl (mainly REDHEADS), and this widened out by Harris Park such that the 3 MUTE SWANS (and 1 sleeping Cygnid companion) were fairly distant. North of the railroad tracks from Towpath Machine shop we saw scads of TUNDRA SWANS and at least one which several of us thought was a TRUMPETER SWAN along with lots of other waterfowl. Two female HOODED MERGANSER swam fairly close to us. Next major birding stop was NYS 31 crossing the mucklands. There to our north we saw a distant SHORT-EARED OWL being harassed in flight by an AMERICAN CROW. I had never before considered that a Short-eared Owl is smaller than an American Crow, but so it was. The Owl out-climbed the crow, and we lost sight of it flying east. We also saw at least one female NORTHERN HARRIER and I think more than 1 light ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. There were 2 aduilt BALD EAGLES at the nest far to the northwest from the Potatoes building, and later we saw one in flight in that vicinity to our south from Van Dyne Spoor Road, where we also saw several AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS and a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD. >From Dean's Cove we saw several male and female RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS on the >water to the south and flying past us going south. From Wyers Point Rd we saw >a pair of WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS. Our best find south of Sheldrake Point, >finally satisfying Larry's wish, was a couple of COMMON LOONS. I left out a lot of birds and fun from this account. We enjoyed a nice, if limited, sunset on our way back to Ithaca. Since we were out past the scheduled 4pm end time, Susan requested overtime pay, so she deserves a bird-and-a-half for everything we found from the west side of the lake. --Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
