My FOY NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD reappeared across the street in the neighbor's tall pine (I have a feeling he's been here before, in past years) singing for the first time this year in the pre-dawn chorus.
My casual observation was that he was doing a set based on more northerly species: in fact, I had to listen for a bit to factor out 'blue jay', 'house finch', 'northern cardinal', 'european starling' imitations (all quite good, and all current residents) before I heard a more definitive 'mockingbird triplet warble'. So I wonder if he did not need to move as far south as in past years when the early mockingbird songs seem to contain more exotic variety. At Sapsucker Woods, I watched the birds while the sun rose on this most pleasant morning. I got my first definite YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER drumming merrily on a tree just outside the lab. I heard similar drumming at home a couple weeks ago but wasn't sure if it was Sapcucker or an early Flicker and without a visual, I let it slide. Many RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS with a smattering of RUSTY BLACKBIRDS and COMMON GRACKLES were flitting around Fuller Wetlands and singing and whistling. Many other usual birds so I won't list all: RED-TAILED HAWK flew by. A pair of EUROPEAN STARLINGs copulated on the high wire. Yesterday, the pond was host to a set of 4-5 RING-NECKED DUCK males pursuing at least one female; there was another more distant female but I couldn't tell if she was also Ring-necked or a Mallard. Didn't see them on this morning's walk but they may reappear later. ______________________ Chris Pelkie Research Analyst Bioacoustics Research Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
