[cayugabirds-l] Re: [cayugabirds-l] Cornell Community Gardens - imminent conversion, weekend walks, M-Th recap

[Dave Nutter]

It's a bit worrisome that there isn't even an alternative site for the interim.
I wonder what the effect of the hiatus will be.
Will the demand for garden plots dissipate or be filled elsewhere?
Will the Cornell powers that be forget to make Freese Rd available for 
gardening again?
Will the weeds be gone during the interim, crowded out by the cover crop or 
plowed under with it?
Will the pool of weed seeds be spent during the interim?
Will the birds who know this place forget to look here, and be replaced by a 
new and ignorant generation?
Will gardeners return and put up fences and posts that they have had to store 
for years?
If the gardens return, I wonder whether they will be as productive for fall 
sparrows et al?
Will the gardens be plowed under again before the weeds can build up again?

--Dave Nutter


On Oct 10, 2015, at 11:53 AM, Paul Anderson  wrote:

> All:
>
> The Freese Road gardens situation isn't as dire as it sounds. I have a plot 
> there so I have received emails about it from the organizers. Here's a 
> snippet from one:
>
>> Dear Gardening Friends,
>>
>>  I’m very sorry to tell you that there will be a major change at Cornell 
>> Garden Plots next year (2016). 
>>
>>  The Cornell Agriculture department, who allows us to use the land on which 
>> we garden, told us that we need to move out of the gardens in 2016 so the 
>> land can be cover cropped.  Apparently we have been using the same soil for 
>> so long that disease spores have built up and are blowing around, which 
>> negatively effects nearby research plots.  By not growing vegetables and by 
>> cover cropping instead, we can greatly reduce the diseases in our soil.  
>> They have agreed to allow us to stay at the Freese Road location and garden 
>> this year while they look for a new location to move us to in 2016.
>>
>>  Once they move us in 2016 we will stay in the new location for a couple of 
>> years while they cover crop our Freese Road gardens.  Then we would move 
>> back to Freese Road, but we would continue to rotate between the two 
>> locations every couple of years so that diseases don’t build up again.
>>
>>  I’m letting you know about this now since you may be considering installing 
>> structures or buying perennial plants for your “permanent plot”.  
>> Unfortunately it will no longer be permanent.
>>
>>  The people in charge of these decisions want us to continue to garden, they 
>> also need to protect the research projects going on nearby.  They have been 
>> nothing but encouraging and positive in our interactions.  Overall this will 
>> make the gardens better, it will unfortunately mean the end of the permanent 
>> plots.
> Unfortunately there has been no success at finding an alternative spot for us 
> gardeners. A location on Dodge Road was identified, but it needs work for 
> drainage and a road and there is no money to pay for it, so until we can 
> return to Freese Road, the club will be on hiatus.
>
> As a birder and a gardener, I am doubly saddened by the loss of this spot, 
> but I am hopeful that we might get it back in a couple of years. And who 
> knows? Maybe it will continue to be a good spot for fall sparrows regardless.
>
> Paul
> -- 
> Paul Anderson, VP of Engineering, GrammaTech, Inc.
> 531 Esty St., Ithaca, NY 14850
> Tel: +1 607 273-7340 x118; http://www.grammatech.com 
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[cayugabirds-l] Mt Pleasant Ruffed Grouse drumming

[Marie P. Read]

Hi all,

Yesterday afternoon around 4:15, I was stopped in my tracks while toiling up 
the hill by the sound of a Ruffed Grouse drumming from the woods along the 
road, in the stretch between the two dirt roads at the eastern end of Mt 
Pleasant Road. 
Also a largish flock of American Pipits is still pipiting their way over and in 
the fields near the radio tower.

Marie


Marie Read Wildlife Photography
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Re: [cayugabirds-l] OT: bear scat at Niemi Rd ponds?

[Ann Mitchell]

I saw it and was curious as to who had their dog in a restricted area.
Obvious I wasn't thinking bear.
Ann

Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 11, 2015, at 9:41 AM, Dave Nutter  wrote:
> 
> Did anyone else notice possible bear scat at the Cornell Research Ponds Unit 
> II on Niemi Rd? It was at the east end next to the black plastic covered 
> structure with a couple of work tables inside, sitting in the road/path 
> immediately on the south side. There was a pile of large turds containing 
> apparent fruit remains. I'm not an experienced tracker but bear scat comes to 
> mind.
> --Dave Nutter
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[cayugabirds-l] OT: bear scat at Niemi Rd ponds?

[Dave Nutter]

Did anyone else notice possible bear scat at the Cornell Research Ponds Unit II 
on Niemi Rd? It was at the east end next to the black plastic covered structure 
with a couple of work tables inside, sitting in the road/path immediately on 
the south side. There was a pile of large turds containing apparent fruit 
remains. I'm not an experienced tracker but bear scat comes to mind.

--Dave Nutter
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[cayugabirds-l] Cornell Community Gardens, Sat Oct 10 and Sun Oct 11

[Mark Chao]

Every year, I feel determined to appreciate October and especially Columbus
Day weekend – for sparrows, for fall foliage, for playoff baseball – all my
favorite things, all too briefly at their peak.  And this urge to cherish
things has become all the more acute right now, because of the news of the
big coming changes at the Cornell Community Gardens.



So I felt that this weekend’s Cayuga Bird Club walks had kind of a grand,
escalating, unifying theme.  Seize the moment.  Seize the day.  Seize the
weekend.  Seize the week.  Seize the month.  Seize the year.  (We even
managed literally to seize one bird – or, more accurately, Paul Anderson
did, gently taking one Song Sparrow in his hand to free it from
entanglement in a folded section of plastic mesh fence.)



We found all nine expected sparrow species over the two days – LINCOLN’S,
SWAMP, SONG, SAVANNAH, CHIPPING, FIELD, WHITE-CROWNED, WHITE-THROATED, and
DARK-EYED JUNCO.  Viewing of Lincoln’s was as good as I’ve ever
experienced, particularly on Sunday.  If you divided the site into a 3 x 3
grid, we had excellent views of Lincoln’s in all nine zones.



Paul saw the DICKCISSEL on Saturday in the northeast corner, but none of
the rest of us succeeded – not even after Tom Schulenberg and his friends
called us over later after having found it themselves.  Today, only two of
us saw it.  So on the whole, the glass feels about 3/4 empty with that
bird, despite how exciting it is that it’s here at all.



But we had other rewards, including today’s biggest surprise – a first-year
BALD EAGLE perched in the lone tree in the field across the road.  Both
days, we also saw a single EASTERN PHOEBE, cherishing those too as if they
might be our last for a while.



Among our 25+ participants over the two days was my mother Johanna Chao,
who saw what I believe must have been her life Lincoln’s Sparrows today.
It was a special pleasure for me to hear her expressing a fresh and
youthful wonder about these birds.   She remarked later like a pro about
the differences between them and Song Sparrows, aptly calling Lincoln’s
“the princes and princesses of the sparrows.”



In fact, she is sitting behind me right now, asleep in a sunlit armchair,
with the Crossley Guide open in her lap to the sparrow pages.  It is
gratifying and inspiring and instructive indeed to see her so game to try
and learn new things at this stage of her life.  Carpe diem, carpe annum,
carpe vitam.



Mark Chao

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[cayugabirds-l] Re: [cayugabirds-l] Dickcissel still present at Cornell Community Gardens, Freese Road

[Dave Nutter]

There are now photos of this Dickcissel by Jay McGowan on eBird here:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25364657
I know that Kevin McGowan and Suan Hsi Yong also took pictures, but I haven't 
found them yet.

--Dave Nutter


On Oct 11, 2015, at 10:46 AM, Mark Chao  wrote:

> I’ll write more later about this weekend’s extremely enjoyable field trips, 
> but for now will just report that the DICKCISSEL is still present on Sunday 
> at the Cornell Community Gardens on Freese Road.  I plainly saw it in the 
> hedgerow at the southeast corner, near the Cayuga Trail entrance, with many 
> White-throated Sparrows.  I was a little surprised about the location, but 
> plainly saw the plain yellow breast, heavily striped brown wings, plain face 
> with distinct supercilium, and somewhat long bill.  I think that the bird may 
> have moved back into the plots when the White-throated Sparrow flock 
> gradually shifted there, but we didn’t refind it.
>
>  
>
> Mark Chao
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Re: [cayugabirds-l] Hudsonian Godwits

[Jay McGowan]

All four HUDSONIAN GODWITS continue at Montezuma as of a few minutes ago,
first at the southern end then flying to the northern end of Eaton Marsh.
The EURASIAN WIGEON was still out on the main pool along with greater
numbers of both scaup. From East Road, 29 SANDHILL CRANES and five SNOW
GEESE are among the large Canada flock on Knox-Marsellus.

Jay
On Oct 7, 2015 1:53 PM, "Ann Mitchell"  wrote:

> Mark Miller just called to say he had 2 Hudsonian Godwits at Eaton Marsh.
> Ann
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
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[cayugabirds-l] Greater White-fronted Geese

[Ann Mitchell]

Mike Tetlow called to report that he and Joann were looking at 3 Greater-White 
Fronted Geese at Knox Marcellus along with all the Sandhill Cranes, etc. that 
were reported earlier.
Ann

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Re: [cayugabirds-l] OT: bear scat at Niemi Rd ponds?

[AB Clark]

Possibly interesting:  this morning, my neighbor found a large bear scat (with 
fruit stones, fur, and corn intermixed) well back from the road on N side of 
Hile School Road, about midway between Ed Hill Rd and 38.  It had to  have been 
left last night, between dusk and about 10 am today.

this is a good time of year for dispersing young bears.

Anne

> On Oct 11, 2015, at 11:08 AM, Ann Mitchell  wrote:
> 
> I saw it and was curious as to who had their dog in a restricted area.
> Obvious I wasn't thinking bear.
> Ann
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Oct 11, 2015, at 9:41 AM, Dave Nutter  > wrote:
> 
>> Did anyone else notice possible bear scat at the Cornell Research Ponds Unit 
>> II on Niemi Rd? It was at the east end next to the black plastic covered 
>> structure with a couple of work tables inside, sitting in the road/path 
>> immediately on the south side. There was a pile of large turds containing 
>> apparent fruit remains. I'm not an experienced tracker but bear scat comes 
>> to mind.
>> --Dave Nutter
>> --
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[cayugabirds-l] Freese Road Dickcissel etc.

[Suan Yong]

I didn't post my dickcissel photos from yesterday because they were unfocused 
and overexposed, but I got some better ones today late in the morning, perched 
nicely under a coneflower stalk, then flying out into the sun briefly before 
dipping into the northeast-most corner plot. Those photos, along with other 
Freese Road highlights (including the ever growing "sparrow on a fence" 
series), are here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/50094151@N03/sets/72157657413093003

Suan
_
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Re: [cayugabirds-l] Freese Road Dickcissel etc.

[Kenneth V. Rosenberg]

Thanks Suan, nice shots.

boy that Dickcissel was a dull one ……

KEN


Kenneth V. Rosenberg
Conservation Science Program
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Office: 607-254-2412
cell: 607-342-4594
k...@cornell.edu

On Oct 11, 2015, at 11:21 PM, Suan Yong 
> wrote:

I didn't post my dickcissel photos from yesterday because they were unfocused 
and overexposed, but I got some better ones today late in the morning, perched 
nicely under a coneflower stalk, then flying out into the sun briefly before 
dipping into the northeast-most corner plot. Those photos, along with other 
Freese Road highlights (including the ever growing "sparrow on a fence" 
series), are here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/50094151@N03/sets/72157657413093003

Suan
_
http://suan-yong.com
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