Our place was more interesting today than expected, given the dull weather. I spent an hour circling our hillside and saw, among the usual suspects: thousands of blackbirds overhead, looking and sounding like redwings and grackles with who-knows-what mixed in, heading south. Distant Canada Geese flocks seemed to be swirling north, to recently-harvested cornfields. I counted at least 90 Cedar Waxwings in one tree, alternately perching and diving into nearby brush to feed. Saw a large, up-close Cooper's Hawk chase, and miss, a red squirrel in our woods. Heard a few Tree Sparrows singing, and a few whistles from a Fox Sparrow. Heard a lot of bluebirds-- not sure if was a local flock repeatedly or a stream of migrants. And was surprised to look out the kitchen window and catch a Northern Mockingbird landing briefly in a yew-- I see about one a year here, and am glad to have seen this one!
Nancy Dickinson Mecklenburg "If we amplify everything, we hear nothing." -- 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/ --
