Re: [cayugabirds-l] Saturday birding

[Gary Kohlenberg]

Ann and I also saw a juvenile Glaucous Gull at Stewart Park this
afternoon. I presume it may be the same one previously reported. 
The diner Ann spoke of is the "New York Style Diner" on Brighton Ave.
about one block south of Thurber St. I know Steve Fast would be curious
;).
Gary


alm9...@aol.com wrote:

  
  
  
  Gary and I went to Syracuse this A.M. to see the Yellow-throated
Warbler, and after 1.5 hour's, we finally saw it.  The bird showed up
for a bit, foraging at a very quick pace and then it moved on. We could
have stood around for another 1 and 1/2 hours, but we were rather cold
by then.  After leaving the warbler, we came across a diner that had a
great variety of breakfast foods. Fantastic food!. Ithaca should have a
diner like that. The birding down the east side of the lake was great
also! We saw Horned Grebes, but have to come back for Eared Grebes.
  Best, Ann Mitchell
  Ithaca
  

[cayugabirds-l] Some birding and natural history notes

[Meena Haribal]

I could not miss the chance of being out in the beautiful weather. So I 
decided to make a short trip along the back roads for red-tails, kestrels 
and buntings etc. But actually ended up doing some 68 miles round trip!
My plan was to go to Lansingville rd and head north on Davis road return 
via Center and Ridge Rd, but ended up going up to Poplar Ridge.
As I was pulling out of the drive I saw columns of insects in the air that 
go in up and down motion in cold days, I think they are gnats, but am not 
sure were dancing in front of my car. May be that is what the brought the 
bats out.
Along Warren and Airport there was nothing noteworthy.  Via Asbury I drove 
to Drake road. As soon as I turned on this road, I saw a hawk sitting some 
distance away. I slowly rolled my car down behind it hoping to get a 
picture in beautiful light. Though I parked some 50 feet away from the 
tree, I think the hawk was watching my car. As soon as I was ready to shoot 
a picture, the bird took off. All I got was tip of its tail. Great pic for 
Id quiz! Later I got a fuzzy in flight shot. It was nice Sharp-shinned Hawk.

I saw couple of Red-tails on the way none close enough to get a picture and 
a dozen of Robins and about 25 Mourning Doves (MODO).  From Lansingville 
Road I headed to Davis road, there was couple more Red-tails and three 
flocks of American crows at various spots along the fields, two more groups 
of American Robins (about 15) and two more flocks of MODO on the wires. 
Nothing else no larks and buntings.
As it was getting late enough, I decided to try Rafferty Road, it was 
almost quiet till I went past Dixon, when I first hear a few Horned Larks, 
as I was watching them, a couple of hundred feet away a flock of about 120 
Snow Buntings (pure flock, I had estimated 100, but based on photo there 
were at least 120). So I pulled along the road hoping to get some pictures. 
They came often close to where I was but then a passing car would spook 
them away. Sometimes they went to the middle of the field, but then came 
back sat closer to the road. I don't know why they preferred feed along the 
road. As sun was getting lower and lower, I decided maybe I should walk 
down to them. I went slowly towards them, they fed some 40 feet away from 
and were starting get closer and closer when another car spooked and most 
of them landed on a tall tree. As soon as they landed on the top almost all 
started preening. Additional ones joined they also preened. At any given 
time at 50% were preening. So it is curious to me why birds preen in 
groups.  I have also watched MODOs, if one starts preening others also do 
the same. Finally all the birds were on the tree. They sat and preened for 
more than 20 minutes. I started get cold. Then a small flock broke off the 
broke and started to feed again. But I decided to head little bit north and 
look for kestrels. In Texas one day we counted 89 or 92 Kestrels and they 
were everywhere, but they were so skittish they never posed for a photo. So 
I was looking for one co-operative bird. But I did not find a single one. 
By then I had reached Poplar Ridge Road. Therefore, I decided I might as 
well head towards the lake and see what is there on the lake.
I came to Aurora Boat House. There were many Goldeneyes and Mallards near 
the shore. I enjoyed watching a pair of Goldeneyes swim and fish together. 
They looked so beautiful and elegant, I wondered why male got such 
beautiful plumage and female became so different. What kind of genetic 
changes occurred in their sexes. I did see not any grebes!
But sun seemed to be in hurry to go to the otherside of the shore. So I 
stopped and took series of pictures of beautiful sunset.

After the sunset, I headed back to Rafferty to see if any owls show up, but 
found none. But it was a beautiful day and was worth being out there to 
watch the sunset!

I have pictures of the sunset on my blog if anyone is interested in seeing 
some. http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/2010/01/east-side-of-cayuga-lake.html

Also in December I came across a huge gathering of Snow Geese on Route 24 
on Dec 19 th. I am always interested in group dynamics and how individuals 
interact with each other. SO I took some videos and have up loaded one on 
to youtube. It is amazing to see while some are squabbling with each 
others, some are blissfully sleeping in that din.  When they are angry with 
someone, they bite the wing feathers of the opponents. It so much looked 
like when we were kids, girls always fought with each other and when very 
angry would pinch each other's shoulders. Snow Geese behavior reminded me 
of that. Snow geese seemed humane or the girls were like snow geese!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSEmTiva6y0

Cheers
Meena



Meena Haribal
Ithaca NY 14850
webpage:


http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/


http://www.geocities.com/asiootusloe/http://www.geocities.com/asiootusloe/mothsofithaca.htmlhttp://haribal.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/wildwest+trip+Au

[cayugabirds-l] Saturday birding

[alm9413]

Gary and I went to Syracuse this A.M. to see the Yellow-throated Warbler,  
and after 1.5 hour's, we finally saw it.  The bird showed up for a bit,  
foraging at a very quick pace and then it moved on. We could have stood  around 
for another 1 and 1/2 hours, but we were rather cold by then.  After  
leaving the warbler, we came across a diner that had a great variety of  
breakfast foods. Fantastic food!. Ithaca should have a diner like  that. The 
birding 
down the east side of the lake was great also! We  saw Horned Grebes, but 
have to come back for Eared Grebes.
Best, Ann Mitchell
Ithaca

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[cayugabirds-l] Stewart Park Sat Jan 16th- 2 Long Tailed Ducks

[david nicosia]

Birded Stewart Park today around midday for an hour or so. There was a fairly 
large raft of
waterfowl right next to the ice edge. Most of these ducks were redheads with 
some scaup (probably
lessor), and mallards mixed in. Highlight for me were 2 long-tailed ducks amid 
all the redheads/scaup. 
There was also a lone gadwall that was initially hard to pick out among the 
female redheads. Farther
out there were about a dozen or so common goldeneyes and a few common 
mergansers. I didn't take 
the time to attempt to find any different gulls as there were many of the usual 
ring-billed, herring 
and great black backed gulls. I did see a gull that was herring-sized with a 
somewhat darker 
mantle...possibly a lessor black backed gull. It was far out so I did not get a 
great look. 

Dave Nicosia
Johnson City, NY 


  
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[cayugabirds-l] FW: NNYBirds: Early bat sightings(long)?

[Susan Fast]

Bill;  This might be useful information about the bat sighting. It doesn't
look good. Steve   

 

  _  

From: northern_ny_bi...@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:northern_ny_bi...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Brian J. McAllister
Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2009 12:25 PM
To: northern_ny_bi...@yahoogroups.com
Subject: NNYBirds: Early bat sightings(long)?

 

Hello All,

This might be a bit OT (from birds) but worthy of all our attention

This past weekend several birders/nature-observers witnessed a major
increase in bat activity throughout the High Peaks Region and nearby
Champlain Valley. This is cause for concern. Most bat
activity(feeding/coming out of hibernation) would "normally" begin later in
the spring season(when insect activity is higher).

Here's an observation from the Keene Valley region"But, as we 
walked down the road when we left the parking area, I first thought I was
seeing large moths but they turned out to be bats. This was at 11:00am in
full sunlight. We saw several as we hiked in and later on Rt73 driving home.
There were 100's along the road, probably 1,000's in the area. 
I researched a little on the web and found this site 
http://www.esf. 
edu/aec/adks/mammals/littlebrownbat.htm 

that suggest out of the nine types in the ADK's these would be the little
brown bat who usually comes out at night...Phil" 

Some one who's intimately involved in this horrible situation gave me this
info to post:

White nose syndrome is devastating bat populations in New York and New
England and is now being reported in nine states. This syndrome is
associated with a white fungus which infects the nose and other bare
parts of bats including wing membranes. Although this fungus has not yet
been identified as the causative agent, the leading theory is that the
fungus causes hibernating bats to rouse and groom so often that they
burn the fat reserves needed to make it through the winter. Some bats
fly out in winter or early spring in a desperate attempt to find food.
Healthy bats do not begin to emerge until the third or fourth week of
April. Any bat seen before then will not likely find enough to eat or
will succumb to freezing temperatures. The course of this disease is
killing nearly all bats at infected hibernacula and continuing to kill
bats through the summer. Bat biologists suspect that regional
extirpation of four or even all six of our common cave bat species is a real
possibility if not likely. If current rates of spread and mortality
continue, bat populations throughout the east coast and beyond will be
threatened. So far hundreds of thousands of bats have died in New York with
little brown (Myotis lucifugus) our most common bat being the hardest hit.

The USFWS has recently updated their white nose syndrome page with links to
reporting mechanisms for some states and the FWS. Please report any bats
seen during the day. I would also appreciate being copied on any reports of
bats seen in the next few weeks in New York.

http://www.fws. 
gov/northeast/white_nose.html

Eric Teed
New Russia, NY
e...@cbsnews.  com

Thanks for your time everyone
Brian McAllister
Saranac Lake

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[cayugabirds-l] Whatta' beautiful day, Bluebirds!

[John and Fritzie Blizzard]

A female & two male BLUEBIRDS  were checking out the bird boxes on our 
clothesline posts today. 
 
I have seen skunk tracks in the snow & Meena has heard owls.  Folks are 
surprised seeing robins  AND a bat flying at Aurora. WOW!! 

Must be foolishness of false spring fever!!! We aren't through January yet but 
we have had a bit of welcome sun & thaw.

Just a blizzard reporting!

Fritzie
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[cayugabirds-l] Aurora Earred Grebe and Bat

[bilbaker]

I spent the morning birding with a group of 7 folks, most of whom continued
around the lake after we split up in Aurora. I needed to be home earlier.

One bird and a surprising mammal were of note in Aurora. The EARRED GREBE,
which was with a group of 9 Horned Grebes. was straight out from the boat
house perhaps 1/4 mile.  Dave Nutter initially found it,  and we all got
decent if distant views. 

The other note was a BAT of unknown species which was seen by several of us
(Bob McGuire and myself for sure and I'm not sure about others) flying over
the bay south of the boat house.  It occasionally dipped down to the water,
 then finally flew up into the trees near by and we lost sight of it.  It
appeared quite active and agile. If anyone has any notions about what
species this could possibly have been or other commentary it would be
appreciated. Today was warm and sunny,  but this seems very unusual to me
at this time of year. 

Bill
Baker

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[cayugabirds-l] Union Springs 11 A.M. E.Screech Owl

[John and Fritzie Blizzard]

On the Factory St. pond 11 A.M. the only visible feathers 
were on the face of our little friend, Screechie, gazing out of 
the duck box on the East side of the pond. The larger mill pond had lots of 
REDHEADS,  a few MALLARDS, and two pairs of
BUFFLEHEADS. (Recently one SCREECH OWL was vivible on
each of the two ponds in our Village. . .at the same time)
John Blizzard
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