[cayugabirds-l] NE Ithaca, Wed 6/8

[Mark Chao]

An EASTERN BLUEBIRD pair continues its unlikely nesting attempt in our
backyard in suburban northeast Ithaca.  The eggs seem to have hatched
around May 25.  At first, the parents would disappear completely into the
nest box with each food delivery, but now they mostly perch on the box face
and place their only their bills through the hole, greeted by increasingly
strong begging voices.  The nestlings seem to be getting mostly short fat
green larvae.



We also have a nesting House Wren pair.  The male lost all his tail
feathers about a week ago, maybe to one of our neighbors’ marauding outdoor
cats.  I can’t see any signs that the feathers are growing back, but
arguably his truncated silhouette ennobles him and makes him even more fun
to watch.  He looks like an honorary Tawny Antpitta.  And he still sings
like a boss.  Certainly this wren is undiminished in the loving eyes of his
mate, who this morning spread and quivered her wings, inviting and then
accepting copulation.



Mark Chao

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[cayugabirds-l] Forget-me-nots as food?

[Caro]

Just observed a male PURPLE FINCH plucking forget-me-not seeds straight off the 
plant on the ground. Never seen that before!

Caroline Manring
West Hill

Sent from my iPhone
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[cayugabirds-l] Garganey from Towpath

[Dave K]

2 pics of Garganey in flight taken from Towpath ~10:40 AM today. Flying West 
with a male Blue-winged Teal.may have landed in the wet spot below the 
newly built house. Will look again later today.


https://flic.kr/p/HPjop5

Garganey 6-8-16 Towpath Rd

[https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7443/27446090162_854889b33b_b.jpg]





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[cayugabirds-l] Nice morning for ducklings

[Geo Kloppel]

I took an early morning walk at the central Lindsay-Parsons Preserve, looking 
for ducklings. There were none to be seen in the big beaver pond beside the 
West Danby Fire Station (the Great Blue Heron nestlings are growing fast; an 
adult Eagle was standing on a log out on the island; Grackles were feeding 
nestlings).

At Coleman Lake were two broods of Mallards and one of Canada Geese. A foraging 
Green Heron soon flew off with something in its beak. Kingfishers were busy 
too. On the mud flats in the washed-out beaver pond just below the dike was a 
family group of Killdeer. Slightly to the north in the beaver pond that's 
sandwiched between the Norfolk Southern tracks and the long abandoned Ithaca & 
Athens RR grade, I found a brood of Wood Ducklings just out of the nest. A 
couple of Hooded Mergansers were in a little pond farther downstream along 
Brown Road.

On my way back I noted a lot of ducks were in the flooded woods at the northern 
edge of the preserve, but I didn't have time to scan carefully for ducklings 
there...

If you're tick-shy, let me add that I whacked enough bushes and tall grass to 
pick up plenty of ticks that should have been waiting for me in this famously 
tick-infested area, but I didn't get a single one! 

-Geo


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