I would Love to know if anyone saw the Tufted today.
I arrived before the sun came up and stayed until 4PM (my second attempt at
this precious bird).
About every 2 hours I froze nearly solid and walked back to my car to thaw
out.
When the snow storm came, I did drive up to the compost pits
All,
I still have not succeeded in crossing paths with the Redhead x Ring-necked
Duck hybrid floating around in the Aythya flocks at the south end (although
Chris and Jessie saw it briefly off East Shore yesterday morning), but I
did finally see not one but two different Ring-necked Duck x scaup
Hello all,
Alexa and I had the good fortune to watch the Tufted Duck for an hour or so
on Saturday morning. It was diving actively the entire time, which made it
tough to find (and difficult to show to others in the scope). Which got me
thinking: What are the various Aythya eating? The Tufted
This afternoon, our neighbor Beverly Way called Miyoko and me over to Siena
Drive, where she had found an EASTERN SCREECH-OWL on the ground. The owl
was outwardly unscathed, free of snow despite a dusting on the ground, and
facing the late-afternoon sun with closed eyes as if basking. But my
My understanding is that the large flocks of Aythya ducks are related to the
proliferation of exotic zebra mussels in the Finger Lakes- but I have to admit
that I don't know the details or whether the different species feed on them to
a different extent.
Ken
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 25,
Hi all,
It's only one species, but last year I prepared round skin of a REDHEAD
that had been found dead on Cayuga Lake, off of Hog Hole. It's stomach was
filled with an assortment of small mussels.
I took a few photos of them if anyone is interested.
- Brad
Brad Walker
Media Specialist
I can observe the rafts of Aythyas in the lake here by Lansing Station Rd. from
the railroad track cliff top areas overlooking the water. I am 18-20 feet
above them and that seems not to disturb them so they stay fairly close to
shore.
Where they often dive the water is about 9-13 feet deep
I recall large rafts of Redheads in winter along the cottages north of East
Shore Park in the mid-1980s, and I think that was before the Zebra Mussel
invasion which began in the Great Lakes in 1988. I wasn't counting numbers then
(nor am I much good at it now), but that was my first experience
