This afternoon (13 Jan) I found a gorgeous breeding plumage male Wood Duck, apparently the first reported this year in the Cayuga Lake Basin. It was at Mud Lock, which is the outlet of Cayuga Lake, which is a short distance southwest of where NYS-90 crosses US-5 & NYS-20 by the Circle K gas & convenience store close to the Montezuma NWR Visitor Center.
The Wood Duck was being very inconspicuous, feeding with a few Mallards among bits of floating debris right next to the upstream end of the lock, and visible from a gravel pull-off along River Road just north of the boat ramp. However, when the ducks saw me fussing with my window-mounted telescope to take a digi-scope photo, they swam out into the river, and the Wood Duck went all the way to the other side, where it was actually more visible. - - Dave Nutter -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") Cayugabirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/cayugabirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) aba_DOT_org/birding-news/ Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
