I took a year-end spin around the lake today, with mixed results. I started off glancing at the south end from Rt. 89 above Hog Hole, where no ducks were in evidence close to shore, except for a female Mallard full of birdshot being retrieved by a bird dog. The Redhead flock was a little farther north, and contained upwards of 100 Canvasbacks, several of each scaup (more Lesser), and several Ring-necked Ducks. I then spent some time scanning the lake from the Sheldrake area with very little to show for my effort. Three Horned Grebes and two Common Loons were almost the only non-goose birds offshore. Other vantages on the west side proved similarly disappointing. December is just not the month to bird the lake, I guess.
Several hundred gulls were congregated on Van Cleef Lake in Seneca Falls, as has been the case the last few times I have been there. The only one of note I found was a beautiful creamy first-cycle GLAUCOUS GULL. I followed some of the birds leaving the lake to the Seneca Meadows Landfill, where, as usual, the gull-watching was tantalizingly good but frustratingly difficult. A huge flock was airborne when I arrived and the fringe of it would periodically touch down on one of the closer, smaller hills where several vehicles were working, but the birds would usually only remain on the trash for less than a minute before being flushed by the movement of the tractors. Eventually the entire flock moved off to the usual loafing field behind the trees and out of sight on the other side of the road, but before they did I was able to see an adult ICELAND GULL, a second-cycle ICELAND GULL, a first-cycle GLAUCOUS GULL, and a likely adult THAYER'S GULL. As with the others, I was only able to observe the Thayer's for a short time, but in flight it looked good, with black wingtips with large white stripes/mirrors, the white more reduced than in Icelands but larger than is typical for Herring; and relatively petite, somewhat rounded head with an apparently dark eye (although this was very hard to judge from the distance.) As usual, I really wish there were a better way to access these birds as there seems to be quite a diversity. Several of these birds (the 1st year Glaucous and the adult Iceland, for example) I saw only in flight as I scanned the flock in the air above me, so I suspect a more detailed scan could turn up some good birds. Worth checking, anyway. Maybe eventually they will loaf in a field that is more visible, or feed on an exposed hillside that isn't being actively worked. I checked a few other spots in the Montezuma area, including the mucklands, where one Snow Bunting and many Rough-legged Hawks were about all I saw. The main pool was pretty deserted in late afternoon as well, although from the cattails and phragmites below the tower wafted up the call notes of two Song Sparrows, a continuing MARSH WREN, and what I strongly suspect was a COMMON YELLOWTHROAT scold note, although I was not able to confirm the last. At Mud Lock, 11 Trumpeter Swans were close to the road. Finally, since it was about that time I stopped by the Ithaca Airport to check on the owl situation for count week. At 4:46, a single SHORT-EARED OWL came drifting in from the northeast (I was watching from Snyder Road near the cone-shaped building on the airport field) and landed out of sight in the distance near the runway. It did not return to view before I left 10 minutes later. This bird was probably roosting somewhere towards Niemi Road, perhaps in some of the scattered pines back in the woods. Good birding. Jay McGowan Dryden, NY -- 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/ --
