A little after 4pm today (May 14), I saw two Forster's Terns at Stewart Park. They flew over without much pause, headed south.
Sydney Penner > This afternoon (Friday 14 May) during a brief break in a busy taxi day > I stopped at Myers Point. On the spit I found only ~20 immature > HERRING GULLS. As I was leaving, something with narrow white wings > caught my eye far to the north. Scoping revealed 7 terns sitting on the > water together considerably north of Salt Point. Everytime one got up > to move it showed the gleaming white upper primaries of FORSTER'S > TERNS. When they all took flight I found that all were Forster's, but > their number had increased to 14. Another scan and I counted 22 terns, > not all of which I could ID, but two of which were COMMON TERNS. > They worked their way north into the shimmer and faded from view, > which was easier to explain than their appearance. > > On a walk at Stewart Park after work I found a female WOOD DUCK > and her family in the swan pond - a tight crowd of ~10 tiny ducklings > with yellow cheeks split by a dark line, plus the last two in line with > entirely reddish brown fluffy heads - MERGANSERLINGS - not sure > which species. > > About yesterday evening's COMMON NIGHTHAWK sighting, sorry > about the ambiguity of my brief text message. When an afternoon of > distracted sky scanning while gardening and lawn-mowing revealed > no migrating Nighthawks despite the southish winds, I decided I needed > to leave my yard. I climbed the nearby bridge of NYS 89 across Ithaca's > Fllood Control Channel (technically I believe the Cayuga Inlet is on the > opposite side of Inlet Island). I scanned the skies without luck until I > saw the appropriate irregular and somewhat floppy movement for a > feeding Common NIghthawk low against the sky far to my north. My > scope at 60X gave it the right shape, but I never saw the white stripes > in the wings even though I could tell it was dark overall. The bird was > probably over Renwick Sanctuary. I lost track of it when it dipped below > the treeline for me. The only birds I saw going north were individual > gulls, > but a handful of BARN SWALLOWS and a CHIMNEY SWIFT headed south. > --Dave Nutter > > -- > > 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/ > > -- > -- 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/ --
