The Cayuga Bird Clubs Dryden Lake Trip this morning was very successful despite the dismal weather forcast. I had four people join me. We scoped the lake from under a pavilion to start, as it was lightly raining. There were 13 Bonapartes Gulls, a Pie-billed Grebe, Canada Geese, 4 Bufflehead, 2 Ring-billed Gulls, and 3 Common Mergansers. About 40 Tree Swallows swarmed around out over the lake. We saw the Osprey pair across the way perched on their nest platform.
It stopped raining so we headed down the trail along the lake. Two Kingfishers seemed to keep traveling along ahead of us. Some highlights included good looks at Rusty Blackbirds (8 total) that were foraging on the ground in a wet area, and flew up to nearby bushes and trees. Woodpeckers we observed were Pileated, Northern Flicker, Red-bellied, Hariy, and Downy. We started seeing Yellow-rumped Warblers, with nice looks at many of them. We also found two Palm Warblers in different spots, with the second one giving us beautiful views. The Bald Eagle pair were at their nest site. Further down the trail we heard and saw Swamp Sparrows and there were some sparrows on the ground in the trail. One was a Song Sparrow and three others, smaller ones, turned out to be Field Sparrows. We had been hearing a Field Sparrow and it was a surprise to see them here on the ground. We saw a Wood Duck pair and several Mallards. We found a Solitary Sandpiper and we had nice close views, as it did not fly off. On our way back, ( it started raining ) we heard an Eastern Towhee and found a Common Loon out on the lake. We found 44 species and I haven't listed all the usual suspects. Thanks to Ann Mitchell who did an ebird list for us. We were a bit wet and cold when we got back to the cars but all agreed it was a wonderful morning with many good birds. Gladys Birdsall -- 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/ --
