At noon today I saw the YELLOW WARBLER by the southwest corner of the Wegmans parking lot. It flew up from tall thick weeds into some saplings along with a small flock of HOUSE SPARROWS, one of which chased it a bit.
On the west side of the Wegmans building in saplings along the bank of the relief channel I saw at least 2 MYRTLE YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, which flew across the channel and out of sight, probably to other trees nearby. There were at least 2 other warbler-sized birds with them which I did not identify. Although I did not see the Audubon's Warbler today, it may still be around, and the Myrtles which I saw well there today were different enough from the bird I saw not-as-well on Thursday to further convince me that Thursday's bird was the Audubon's.
As I walked along Brindley Street I heard & saw a pair of FISH CROWS in a tree on the point of land north of the Brindley Street bridge.
At 4pm while Laurie & I sat on a park bench along the Cayuga Waterfront Trail just north of the NYS-89 bridge, we saw a fast brown bird fly past us and across the Flood Control Channel, nearly level and aiming at the bushes alongside the Boatyard Grill. It was a hunting MERLIN. I didn't see any House Sparrow movement there as I followed the falcon in my binoculars, but the raptor turned aside, flew south a short distance, then came west across the water again and began rising. It kept climbing and going west until I lost it beyond the tallest treetops of the hill behind us. This prompted several thoughts:
(1) Maybe the Merlin is a local bird routinely checking the House Sparrow colonies.
(2) I'm glad I'm not a small bird. Every time I see a hunting Accipiter or Falco it takes me a second to realize what's going on, a second in which I'd be nailed. And I've got the easy side view. It's terrifying to think of needing to recognize the threat of such a bird as it came head-on. Of course as a prey item, I probably wouldn't spend time trying to ID it to species...
(3) The visual processing which birds do is mind-boggling in order to
(a) fly and avoid obstacles or alight on a perch,
(b) find their way - at various scales,
(c) recognize and interact with members of their own species or flock,
(d) find and grab food - aerial plankton and swimming fish being some of the most impressive targets, and
(e) recognize and evade threats such as raptors.
Often they are doing several of these jobs simultaneously or switching in rapid succession.
On the west side of the Wegmans building in saplings along the bank of the relief channel I saw at least 2 MYRTLE YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, which flew across the channel and out of sight, probably to other trees nearby. There were at least 2 other warbler-sized birds with them which I did not identify. Although I did not see the Audubon's Warbler today, it may still be around, and the Myrtles which I saw well there today were different enough from the bird I saw not-as-well on Thursday to further convince me that Thursday's bird was the Audubon's.
As I walked along Brindley Street I heard & saw a pair of FISH CROWS in a tree on the point of land north of the Brindley Street bridge.
At 4pm while Laurie & I sat on a park bench along the Cayuga Waterfront Trail just north of the NYS-89 bridge, we saw a fast brown bird fly past us and across the Flood Control Channel, nearly level and aiming at the bushes alongside the Boatyard Grill. It was a hunting MERLIN. I didn't see any House Sparrow movement there as I followed the falcon in my binoculars, but the raptor turned aside, flew south a short distance, then came west across the water again and began rising. It kept climbing and going west until I lost it beyond the tallest treetops of the hill behind us. This prompted several thoughts:
(1) Maybe the Merlin is a local bird routinely checking the House Sparrow colonies.
(2) I'm glad I'm not a small bird. Every time I see a hunting Accipiter or Falco it takes me a second to realize what's going on, a second in which I'd be nailed. And I've got the easy side view. It's terrifying to think of needing to recognize the threat of such a bird as it came head-on. Of course as a prey item, I probably wouldn't spend time trying to ID it to species...
(3) The visual processing which birds do is mind-boggling in order to
(a) fly and avoid obstacles or alight on a perch,
(b) find their way - at various scales,
(c) recognize and interact with members of their own species or flock,
(d) find and grab food - aerial plankton and swimming fish being some of the most impressive targets, and
(e) recognize and evade threats such as raptors.
Often they are doing several of these jobs simultaneously or switching in rapid succession.
--Dave Nutter
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