Took a trip around Cayuga Lake today with Nancy Morgan and Courtney Moore.
First stop was Sheldrake. It was windy with choppy waves and not much seen.
A couple greater black backed gulls, 1 ring-billed gull and several mallards.
The horned
grebe that Nancy had here a few days ago was not seen.
Next stop was Lower Lake Road near the edge of the lake ice. This was where
most
of the action was. There were literally "clouds" of snow geese over the middle
of the lake.
In addition, there were numerous redheads, several lesser scaup, gadwall,
mallards,
black ducks, common goldeneye, hooded mergansers, numerous ring-billed,
herring
and greater black backed gulls. There were probably 50-75 tundra swans.
We also had a couple flyover horned larks here.
On the other side of the lake, at Harris Park, there were at least 500 common
goldeneyes
among many gulls, canada and snow geese, and tundra swans. At the North Pond,
Union
Springs there was a nice raft of redheads with close views. also bufflehead,
ring-necked duck,
gadwall, mallards, black duck and 3 AMERICAN COOT. The Factory Street Pond did
not
yield the screech owl today. Also in Union Springs we got a great look at a
MERLIN
in the top of a tree. He just sat for 10 minutes as Nancy and Courtney clicked
many photos
of this handsome bird.
>From an overlook of the lake from route 90 between Union Springs and Aurora
there
were 3 large very dense rafts of waterfowl, probably 10,000 or so. At times,
the
birds
were flying and it looked like a swarm of insects. The birds were too distant
to see any field marks, but I suspect they were redheads and other Aythya
species.
In any event, the shear numbers were impressive.
At the Aurora Wells College Boat House, we had 1 female canvasback with
an injured wing and a female scaup sp. There were also common goldeneyes
canadian geese and gulls there as well. No eared or horned grebe found today.
On lake road, past Long Point St Park, we got great views of a northern harrier
hovering over the extensive grasslands. We ended up seeing 2 more harrier
between
Lake Road and Ithaca.
Back at Stewart Park, distant scoping was hampered by heat shimmer. Did not
see the king eider today. Closer in, near the edge of ice, there were many
gulls
as
usual. Among the usual herring, ring-billed and greater black backed, found 1
ICELAND GULL and 2 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS.
All in all, a nice day with 47 species to start 2011.
Happy New Year to all.
Dave Nicosia
Johnson City, NY
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