Did my annual early January trip to Cayuga Lake with my friend Dan Watkins. First stop was the Dandy Mart in Slaterville and we saw the EASTERN SCREECH OWL roosting in the same hole as last year. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S33366479
Then we hit Stewart Park but missed the Ross's Goose. But the shear numbers of birds here is awesome for us since all of our small ponds and larger lakes are frozen now. There also has been a lot of ice in the rivers so our waterfowl and gulls are in dribs and drabs and not concentrated like at Stewart Park or other parts of Cayuga Lake. Best birds for us were LONG-TAILED DUCKS, NORTHERN PINTAILS, 1 adult LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, 1 PIED-BILLED GREBE and a decent flock of REDHEADS among many others. Next stop was Ladoga, and Myer's Point and there really wasn't much up there that we hadn't seen at Stewart. Long Point State Park also was sparse but we did get 5 WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS from the bluffs over Aurora Bay. The best concentration of waterfowl was found from "Cayuga Lake Near Railroad Tracks Rte 90, Cayuga County, New York, US" This was the name of the ebird hotspot. There were at least 5000 ducks in two long rafts well to the south of the viewing spot and we couldn't really ID anything. Lighting was poor too. But the spot we were at can be seen from this google map link https://goo.gl/maps/aeQuP15nzmx The two long rafts were closer to "Fire lane 21" probably where the stream flows out. There were two hunting boats and decoys north of these rafts but they were not heading down to where the ducks were suggesting they weren't allowed to hunt down there. This is worth checking out if someone has the time. We also saw close up views of the typical waterfowl at Mill Pond In Union Springs. Nothing usual but nice looks at GADWALL, REDHEADS, AMERICAN WIGEON and BUFFLEHEAD among others. Then we got on the SNOWY OWL at the Finger Lakes Airport following up on Jay McGowan's RBA report. We only found one of the two birds there and we saw this bird from Martin Road just east of the airport buildings. See: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S33376367 Then from Lower Lake road there was a nice raft of aythya genus much closer and we had all typical aythya species except CANVASBACK. Most of the birds were in a very tight pack and were REDHEADS like usual. see: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S33377839 We totaled 58 species in the Cayuga Basin today. A great start to the new year for us. Happy New Year and Birding to all!! Dave Nicosia -- 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/ --
