[cayugabirds-l] to Montezuma and back again
It was a greyish day, but still lots of good sightings. Total of 43 species between 8 and 4. Started at Myers with a juvenile red-tailed hawk sitting on one of the "campsites". A pair of ospreys on the lakeside of Salt Point demonstrated how to collect sticks for nesting material as a pair of kingfishers dived along the stream. Saw several kestrels on the power lines along 90 as we approached Union Springs - highlights of buffleheads and redheads at Factory Pond and the later roadside pond near the school. More of the "usuals" appeared as we neared River Rd. at the north end of Cayuga Lake: cormorant, ring-necked ducks, and great blue herons. Montezuma visitor center and wildlife drive yielded Northern shovelers, blue winged and green winged teal, coots, gadwalls, American widgeon,swan sp. in the distance and a pair of northern harriers hunting over the main pool. Along East Rd., and later along 31, pintails joined the rafts of waterfowl along with several pairs of Am. black ducks. We spent a short time at the MAC in Savannah, but the starlings were the only residents of the purple martin house today. LOTS of water and no sandhill cranes on Carncross, but we did find another pair of hunting northern harriers at Martens Tract as well as phoebes nesting under the observation platform there. Had only seen one bald eagle at the Visitor Center earlier, so we checked on Armitage Rd where one adult head was visible peering out of the nest. Also revisited Mudlock and think we saw where the eagles there were building a new nest after losing their previous one in last month's heavy windstorm. A quick trip back down the east side of the Lake gave us views of a pair of wood ducks at Factory Pond, several small groups of red breasted mergansers, one common merganser pair, a group of 16 double crested cormorants, many pairs of buffleheads, and finally 3 common loons. Plus the many robins, grackles, red winged blackbirds, rock doves, mourning doves, mockingbirds etc. that we passed in yards and trees along the way. Many thanks to Chris Lajewski who filled us in on all the recent happenings and sightings of the Audobon Center and Montezuma in general during the past few weeks. Thankful for a homeschool day-on-the-road.Colleen Richards Why Your City Doctors No Longer Prescribe Metformin Vibrant Health Network http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/58e5d76450059576411bcst04duc -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Cayuga Bird Club April meeting
Next Monday, April 10, will be the next monthly meeting of the Cayuga Bird Club. Bruce Smith and Katherine [Kit] Muma, will give their presentation, "Kiwis and Kokakos: Wildlife Conservation in New Zealand". Although they have both been on faculty in the Biology Dept. at Ithaca College, Bruce retired 3 years ago. His courses included Animal Behavior; Aquatic Ecology; and Parasites and Vectors of Disease. Among the courses Kit has taught are Field Ornithology, and Bird Brains and Mind Games: Animal Consciousness. They spent parts of their last two sabbatical leaves in New Zealand. New Zealand bird species evolved in isolation, remote from any other significant land masses and virtually without terrestrial mammals. Consequently, the bird fauna was poorly adapted for the onslaught of mammalian predators that came with human settlement, first with the Maori people and later with European colonists. A significant proportion of the woodland species went extinct and many of the remaining ones are few in number and isolated on offshore island or remote patches of native forest. New Zealand, however, is a world leader in conservation, and has brought a number of their species back from the brink of extinction. Join us for an evening of video and still photography of birds of New Zealand, and a discussion of the challenges they face.The meeting will be held at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Doors open at 7:00 pm and there will be cookies and conversation starting at 7:15. Bird club business begins at 7:30 pm followed by the presentation. All are welcome.There will be no speaker dinner before the Club meeting. See you all on Monday. Colleen RichardsCorresponding SecretaryCayuga Bird Club 3 Foods Surgeons Are Now Calling "Death Foods" 3 Harmful Foods http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/58e5a54de48e2254d6ea7st01duc -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Free extra copy of North American Bird Bander, Oct-Dec 2016 issue
I have an extra copy of the October to December 2016 North American Bird Bander peer-reviewed journal if anyone wants it. I can bring it to the next Monday meeting or arrange for a downtown pick up. Let me know! -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] EBBA 2017 Meeting Highlights
I'm not a bird bander (yet), but I went to the recent 2017 meeting anyway to learn more about it and see if I would want to do the training. I was impressed by the passion and comradry of this group and left with a great appreciation for all the people who put in tens of thousands of hours laying the foundation of what seems to be our modern day "citizen science." A few of these members had recently passed, and they were honored as were living members who made huge contributions. The speakers list was rich and varied and intense at times with back-to-back presentations (4-5 in the morning 4-5 in the afternoon). Most presenters seemed to be leaders of bird banding stations and were sharing innovations in banding technique and/or interesting observations or how they solved different challenges. One of the presenters was a couple from the Westchester county who described all of the places a saw-whet owl would sleep or hunt. It was fascinating because it would spend a lot of time in places you would not expect: behind a large shopping plaza parking lot, crossing four lane expressways nightly, clusters of 3-5 tall evergreen trees, and down in tangles where it would wait for a mouse. I loved seeing how they paid attention to the type of tree the bird preferred and percent of time found in that tree or perched low on a tangle where there was nothing growing making for easy hunting Another highlight was hearing about the conservation efforts of a Lab of O student (Santos) and his work/results tagging a very large Chilean woodpecker. He shared a lot of data and video footage...even footage of a woodpecker murdering (yes, murdering) another woodpecker of its own species and how those woodpecker manage their territories and locating their territories. I have misplaced my notes from the meeting, but I hope that gives you a sense of the meeting. If you are interested, next year's meeting will be in June 2018 in Acadia! Accommodations sound very affordable, and the food there is excellent! I have an extra copy of the October to December 2016 North American Bird Bander peer-reviewed journal if anyone wants it. I can bring it to the next Monday meeting or arrange for a downtown pick up. -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Ithaca Ospreys, etc.
A few days ago a new Osprey platform was installed on a pole along the east side of the Flood Control Channel on the north side of AJ Foreign Auto on Cherry Street, about here: 42.438, -76.516. Some nearby trees were cut down, and the platform was baited heartily with large bushy branches. I haven't seen any Ospreys at it yet as I bike home from work. This afternoon I got off work a bit early and biked to the lakeshore at Treman Marine State Park. I had seen one Osprey on the platform in Union Field as I passed, and then I saw an Osprey flying east toward Jetty Woods. I don't know if either was among the 4 Ospreys flying around together over the marina a few minutes later. Two of them alit on the platform in the middle of the field north of the marina. There was still one on that platform when an Osprey (don't know which one) flew to the ground in another part of the field, grabbed two fistfuls of dead grass and flew east. Later it appeared that such dead grass had been put in the platform at the northwest corner of Newman Golf Course, but I didn't see anyone on that platform nor on the platform north of the Hangar Theatre. An adult Bald Eagle was perched in the trees west of the Hog Hole west of the marina about this time. In the morning during a brief stop at Stewart Park I heard and saw one Osprey flying over Jetty Woods apparently irritated by an immature Bald Eagle. Shortly afterward I saw two eagles, an adult and an immature, perched in trees near the north point of Jetty Woods. As I was leaving the marina area this afternoon I saw a male Merlin fly over the marina and begin diving repeatedly. It was a long time before I saw the object of his attention: my first-of-year sighting of a Barn Swallow. Both birds were probably hungry and desperate, and they expended a lot of energy, but after several minutes the Merlin left without any food. Other nice sightings this afternoon included a male Rusty Blackbird in the swamp and an immature Bonaparte's Gull on the lake a short distance north of the white lighthouse. On my morning stop at Stewart Park there had been at least 4 Bonaparte's Gulls flying in that area: an immature, a breeding plumage adult, and a couple of winter plumage adults. --Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] TC SandhIll Cranes
A pair of SANDHILL CRANES was calling (10 am) from the marsh just south of where Hile School Road crosses the marsh. Within Tompkins County - out of the Basin. Bob McGuire -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
