[cayugabirds-l] A different orchard oriole
A “first summer male” yellow w/ black throat, eating jelly at feeder near my kitchen window! Meanwhile, 1 of adult males is back at 2nd jelly feeder in back yard, taking turns w Baltimore oriole male. What a treat! Donna Scott Lansing Sent from my iPhone -- 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/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Orchard orioles
Not one, but two male orchard orioles just came to my jelly and orange feeder in back yard! First ever I have seen Orchard orioles here, not to mention they are my first of year for these birds. This was just after a female and a male Baltimore oriole ate the grape jelly and orange. Besides the beautiful, clear singing of the Baltimore orioles, one of my gray cat birds has been singing the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard from that species. Cat birds are not going to the jelly /orange feeders, so I don’t think they are the cat birds from last year who couldn’t get enough of those foods. They keep eating suet a few inches away from the jelly/ orange hanging dish. Donna Scott Lansing Sent from my iPhone -- 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/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Veery
FOY veery in the woods here by Six-Mile Creek, hopping around silently checking out the large tree that fell over the winter, allowing for a great unbinoculared view of its spotless front and reddish upperparts. Also FOY for me Yellow Warbler down near the second dam. Suan -- 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/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Chimney swifts ... Union Springs 5/5/20
On Mon., 5/4/20 I thought I saw a chimney swift but wasn't certain. Today I saw 2 over the campus of Union Springs Academy but didn't have time to watch for more. Swifts have nested in the tall chimney of the girl's dorm off & on for at least 10 yrs.. I have seen them flying over here & down in the village many times. They may have been there longer & regularly but I just haven't paid attention. I know they nested in another unused campus chimney many yrs. ago, They bring me great pleasure so I'm happy to know they are here. Fritzie B. Union Springs, NY -- 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/ --
[cayugabirds-l] About that Marsh Wren...
I keep thinking about the migrant Marsh Wren I discovered in its temporary home, a tiny remnant of Cattails in Newman Golf Course. I’m accustomed to seeing and hearing Marsh Wrens only during the breeding season and in huge Cattail marshes like we find in parts of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex. Perhaps “my” bird was eventually headed to Montezuma, or someplace similar. A hundred and ten years ago, when Lab of O founder Arthur Allen was researching his thesis on the ecology of Red-winged Blackbirds, his study site was the marsh at the south end of Cayuga Lake. I once read that thesis, and as I recall, his map showed the marsh covering what is now most of Allan H Treman State Marine Park, Cass Park, and Newman Golf Course. He included a note of dismay that the marsh was ruined in 1912 when Cayuga Inlet was dredged for shipping, and the spoils were thrown up on the banks, wrecking the natural drainage of the marsh. Today we can play on dry land because that whole area was further filled with dredge spoils (and worse stuff!) in the ensuing decades. But if I remember correctly, Marsh Wrens were among the many species the thesis listed as present. So, the ancestors of the bird I saw might have lived right where I found it. That was my perspective. Marsh Wrens live in big marshes. Finding one in a tiny marsh is odd, a surprise, the exception, maybe an emergency situation. Only a couple other times do I recall finding a migrant Marsh Wren, and it was in a place it would not have bred, for example the ditch between the back of Wegman’s and the parking lot for the Eagles Club on Cecil Malone Drive. That area may have been extensive Cattail marsh, too, within my lifetime. We humans have destroyed a lot of big marshes, and my migrating bird was lucky to find even a bit of marsh, I thought. But I wasn’t thinking like a migrant. That bird did not stop at Newman Golf Course last Friday morning in order to breed there. It only needed shelter and food for a few hours. You don’t buy a house and a farm when you’re on the road. You eat at a diner, rent a bed in a motel room, and then you keep going. There may be hardships during migration requiring “any port in a storm,” but the weather that night was mild, and the was wind helpful, so that leg of the bird’s journey was pretty ordinary. And if all you need is a few square yards of marsh, then maybe migration needn’t be too stressful. There are probably ditches with Cattails all over the eastern US, maybe pretty easy to find, generally ignored by people, and the smaller the bit of marsh, the less likely it is to be occupied by some other bird who is defending turf to raise a family. Before people drained marshes, dug ditches, and built railroads, there were beavers, landslides, floods, and river meanders creating wetlands, while succession filled them in. Habitats change naturally*, so birds who migrate must be ready to look for alternative sites to breed or to rest en route. Maybe stopovers in tiny isolated Cattail stands are a useful strategy or even standard practice among migrating Marsh Wrens. [*Natural change of habitats is not a defense or excuse for the absurdly rapid and extensive changes that people cause.] Now I’m wondering how many times I’ve passed a few Cattails during migration and been unaware of a quiet Marsh Wren resting and fattening up for a day or two until the winds are favorable again. And I wonder why my bird was quietly singing early in the morning. Maybe it was telling other Marsh Wrens, “This ditch is occupied, go find your own single-bird-sized piece of habitat!” I still think habitat conservation is very important, especially for big marshes that host breeding populations of many species, but also for smaller marshes, and now even tiny ones. And that reminds me. On Sunday morning I interrupted my birding bike & hike trip to Stewart Park and Renwick Wildwood to join Laurie for a rare car jaunt to see the wildflower collection at Mundy. I like wildflowers, especially Toadshade, and she enjoyed the FOY Great Crested Flycatcher overhead. While we were in the neighborhood I convinced her to take a side trip to the Newman Arboretum, specifically to Houston Pond, the one with the boardwalk across the middle and marsh on one side. We rested there, admired the coursing Barn Swallows, and wondered how to count Red-winged Blackbirds as they keep flying in and out of the cattails, how long it takes downy goslings to stop being cute, and whether adding a second log or rock in the water would double the number of turtles climbing onto each other to bask. Then I heard a grunting noise in the marsh, and with some skillful binocular use Laurie had her best look ever at a Virginia Rail. - - Dave Nutter > On May 2, 2020, at 6:35 AM, Dave Nutter wrote: > > Yesterday morning I biked through the mist to Stewart Park on the Cayuga > Waterfront Trail, assiduously inputting every ID into eBird as
[cayugabirds-l] Goetchius Wetland Preserve (FLLT), Tues 5/5
On Tuesday morning, I visited the Finger Lakes Land Trust’s Goetchius Wetland Preserve. I found a satisfying subset of the species that others found this past weekend (no Sedge Wren), plus one unexpected new visitor. Here are some highlights. * PEREGRINE FALCON overhead, speeding northbound into the wind. An exciting surprise, and maybe unprecedented for the Spring Bird Quest! My brief view and one bad photo do not show dangling jesses, but the bird’s feet appeared to be balled up on something. If anyone was taking a captive falcon out for sport around Slaterville Springs this morning, would you please let me know? * VIRGINIA RAIL grunting spontaneously in the middle of the southernmost cattail patch accessible by foot from the parking area. (Others found up to seven Virginia Rails, three American Bitterns, and a Sora here on Saturday and Sunday.) * Two WILSON’S SNIPE issuing rich chirps at rest from the cattails, then rising up and wheeling spectacularly together in the blue sky * SOLITARY SANDPIPER in the original southern portion of the preserve, in a close mud patch surrounded mostly by open water * BROWN THRASHER teed up and singing a loud, varied, and wonderfully musical song in a hedgerow in the newest part of the preserve (acquired in January 2019) on the east side of Flatiron Road, with EASTERN BLUEBIRD, YELLOW WARBLER, and PURPLE FINCH singing nearby * BOBOLINK, EASTERN MEADOWLARK, SAVANNAH SPARROW, and FIELD SPARROW all singing (though not often, except the Field Sparrows) in the northern section The Land Trust has painstakingly pieced the preserve together over the years. It made the first two acquisitions in 1995, a total of 36 acres. Since then, via three more acquisitions, the Land Trust has acquired the wetlands and open fields to the north (2007 and 2011) and the new wet meadows and hedgerows to the east (January 2019). Two more pending acquisitions will bring the preserve to more than triple its original size! Mark Chao PS. The gray-morph EASTERN SCREECH-OWL has been regularly present in its cavity along Siena Drive in northeast Ithaca, including yesterday and today. -- 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/ --
