[cayugabirds-l] 23 Brant geese at Seneca Lake SP @ Geneva, NY (5/7/17)

[John and Fritzie Blizzard]

After Becky got off work & had lunch at 4 p.m. with us, she & I went to 
Geneva, scarcely daring to hope we'd find the Brant mentioned in a post 
much earlier in the day.

Before I even got to the park entrance, she spotted them on the grass to 
the East of the Visitor's Center. She only has a little point & shoot 
Canon camera but she got some nice pictures. The Brant weren't really 
skittish so she walked about 30 ft. behind them & "herded" them towards 
me as I sat in the car. She was thrilled to finally see them. I had held 
an injured one that John & I took to Cornell some 12 yrs. ago so I knew 
how beautiful they are.

The jaunt yielded us 3 new osprey nests as well, even tho' they're not 
in the Cayuga basin. We saw Chimney swifts over the Smith's Opera House 
in Geneva, our 1st for the yr..

At_Mud Lock_ we saw a bald eagle in a tree near the new nest which is 
still quite visible.  The waters of Seneca River & canal are quite high 
& overflowing the banks from the lock northward.

Fritzie Blizzard

Union Springs, NY



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[cayugabirds-l] This Weekend's SFO Trips to the Braddock Bay Bird Banding Station (long)

[bob mcguire]

I led two trips to the BBBO this weekend for the Spring Field Ornithology class 
- one Saturday and a second one Sunday. It is absolutely amazing what 
difference a single day can make on an almost identical itinerary.

There was a lot of discussion among the leaders at the end of the week as to 
whether the trip should go on at all. The weather forecast was for rain both 
days, with strong winds and falling temperatures on Sunday. Finally, at around 
8 pm Friday the decision was made to go - and take our chances with the 
weather. We were told that the banding station would be active and the nets 
would be open during any period of no rain and if the wind remained below 
something like 20 mph.

Saturday morning I met my group at Cass Park at 5:30 and sat in our cars for 
the next 10 minutes to wait out a terrific downpour. As we drove north, the sky 
lightened and the rain cut back to just a drizzle. By the time we arrived at 
Braddock Bay, on the lake shore just west of Rochester, the rain had quick 
altogether, and the net check crew was just coming in with a handful of cloth 
bags - full of birds. For the next couple of hours we watched the banding 
process and listened to the crew explain their work and the data collection. 

Around mid-morning we left the banding station and drove a short distance to 
Owl Woods, a wooded preserve just up the road. We walked the loop trail, 
focusing on an array of common birds: Cardinal, Catbird, House Wren, Blue-gray 
Gnatcatcher, Chickadee. As we were finishing the loop and about to leave to get 
an early lunch, we encountered a so-called “feeding flock”. Birds were 
everywhere, and it was impossible to get everyone on each bird. We had 
Ruby-crowned Kinglets (we saw many Kinglets netted and banded earlier in the 
morning), Black-throated Blue Warblers, Black-and-White Warblers, American 
Redstarts, Red-breasted Nuthatches (and heard more: Black-throated Green 
Warblers and House Wrens). It was all over in about a half hour as the birds 
moved on. We were left, literally, breathless!

>From there we drove a mile east and pulled into the Braddock Bay marina for a 
>quick picnic on the hoods of our cars. Somehow we had picked the right spot - 
>right under a tree with foraging Yellow Warblers and Yellow-rumped Warblers. 
>After lunch we walked out to the lakeshore. My intention had been to walk 
>along the shore, looking for birds in the trees overhead and then scoping the 
>lake for water birds. However, the water level in the lake was so high (many 
>of the houses along the shore had sand bags in front to keep back the waves) 
>that we could only scope from one spot. But that spot happened to be near the 
>nest of a Spotted Sandpiper, and we were able to study its erratic wing motion 
>in flight and the typical tail-bobbing while perched. Cormorants flew past, 
>and a group of Red-breasted Mergansers flew in and landed close by. At one 
>point I spotted an American Pipit, distant along the shore, before it 
>disappeared into the brush. 

At that point we called it a productive day and headed home, stopping briefly 
at the Lott Farm to look for Upland Sandpipers (unsuccessfully) and to admire 
the dozens of Bobolinks chasing each other around the unmowed portion of the 
fields.

That was Saturday. That evening the discussion continued as to whether we 
should go again the next day (different groups, though). The forecast for 
Sunday actually looked worse, but with Sandy Podulka willing to take her group 
first (at 4 am!) and her promise to let me know how it look up there when she 
arrived (and about the time I would be waking up - 6 am) I let my group know 
that we would try it. 

This morning at Cass Park, before we could even get out of the parking lot, we 
had seen and discussed a White-CROWNED Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, 
and House Sparrow. On the road to Geneva we encountered a small flock of Wild 
Turkeys, birds we have watched carefully for the day before but missed for that 
day’s list. We arrived at the BBBO around 9:30 and found that, because of rain 
early in the morning, they has just recently opened the nets and begun to catch 
birds. Once again we watched the whole process of taking birds out of the nets, 
banding them, and recording their physical measurements (wing chord, tarsus 
length, weight), aging and sexing them. Once again the majority of birds 
captured were Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, several of them being birds that had been 
banded there the day before and had not yet moved on. One of the great thrills 
of being there is seeing the birds so close in hand and being able to observe 
and discuss the plumage patterns, the condition of the feathers (fresh vs worn 
used in determining the bird’s age), how much fat the bird is carrying, and so 
on.

We watched while they banded a Robin, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and several 
Chickadees (as well as numerous Kinglets). Shortly before noon we left the 
banding station to, just like 

Re: [cayugabirds-l] Nearly 400 migratory birds die from striking Texas skyscraper | Reuters

[Linda Orkin]

I think what's freakish is that anyone noticed. 

Linda 

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 7, 2017, at 5:07 PM, Regi Teasley  wrote:
> 
> And has anyone learned anything from this?  What is "freakish" about this, 
> the building manager's ignorance?  
> 
> http://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-birds-idUSKBN18203M
> 
> Regi
> 
> "Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, 
> you will perceive the divine mystery in things."  Dostoyevsky.
> 
> 
> --
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[cayugabirds-l] Nearly 400 migratory birds die from striking Texas skyscraper | Reuters

[Regi Teasley]

And has anyone learned anything from this?  What is "freakish" about this, the 
building manager's ignorance?  

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-birds-idUSKBN18203M

Regi

"Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, 
you will perceive the divine mystery in things."  Dostoyevsky.


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[cayugabirds-l] Black terns

[Peter]

FYI folks.

While performing my duties as a roving naturalist at the Montezuma National 
Wildlife Refjge yesterday
I saw two black terns.

TONS of Great Blue Herons and lots of eagles.

Very few shorebirds - a spotted sandpiper, both flavors of yellow legs
and a few least sandpipers. A solitary was also around but not seen by
this observer.

However, the terns were the highlights...that and SCORES
of barn swallows coursing through the placethey were a delight to watch.



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[cayugabirds-l] E. Kingbird at Hile School Rd Wetland

[AB Clark]

May 6th evening—David saw our first E. Kingbird insect foraging on edges of the 
Hile School Rd Wetland/Marshes, along with Tree Swallows, at least.

May 2—I had a Spotted Sandpiper skipping about on high points, near the road as 
it crosses.  Water very high.  Beavers keep rebuilding after temporary lowering 
of dam at points, plus rain and the runoff provided by the horrible road 
maintenance job that Dryden did last summer.

Anne

Anne B Clark
147 Hile School Rd
Freeville, NY 13068
607-222-0905
anneb.cl...@gmail.com






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Re:[cayugabirds-l] cayugabirds-l digest: May 07, 2017

[Laurie Rubin]

Male Indigo Bunting in my backyard on Wood Street, Ithaca. First ever and 
thrilling. 

Sent from my iPad

> On May 7, 2017, at 12:02 AM, Upstate NY Birding digest 
>  wrote:
> 
> CAYUGABIRDS-L Digest for Sunday, May 07, 2017.
> 
> 1. Re: Further info Yellow House Finch
> 2. Re: Further info Yellow House Finch
> 3. Dryden to Ithaca trailtime to vote again.
> 4. Goslings @ MNWR
> 5. Indigo Buntings
> 6. Hummingbird/ other birds
> 7. Franklin's Gull Broome County Dorchester Park/Whitney Point Dam Area May 
> 6th, 2017
> 8. Re: Red-necked Grebes on Dryden Lake
> 9. Audio Clips of Franklin's Gull Broome Co Today
> 10. RE: Goslings @ MNWR
> 11. RE: Hummingbird/ other birds
> 
> --
> 
> Subject: Re: Further info Yellow House Finch
> From: 
> Date: Sat, 6 May 2017 11:45:47 +
> X-Message-Number: 1
> 
> I'm always amazed at the differences between here and the Ithaca area.
> Over the years we have encountered very few yellow HOFI, probably less
> than a handful. Purple Finch yellowish plumes on the other hand were not
> at all unusual, and as Linda points out, in the drier years. 
> 
> Other differences are in stopover times for a few species as compared to
> John Confer's data. We get month long stopovers in both migrations of
> Eastern White-crowned Sparrows and maybe a few days at most with Fix
> Sparrow while it's just the reverse with John. 
> 
> John 
> 
> ---
> John and Sue Gregoire
> Field Ornithologists
> Kestrel Haven Migration Observatory
> 5373 Fitzgerald Rd
> Burdett, NY 14818
> 42.443508000, -76.758202000 
> 
>> On 2017-05-05 21:23, Kevin J. McGowan wrote:
>> 
>> No, the most likely explanation is that it is a young male in relatively 
>> poor condition. The captive experiments showed that poor diet makes for more 
>> yellow and less red birds. Those ideas apply to wild birds, as well. 
>> Yellowish House Finches are relatively common. I usually see a few each 
>> year. 
>> 
>> But, since you brought up the topic. I had occasion the other day to see the 
>> same phenomenon (I am guessing) in PURPLE Finches, which I don't think I've 
>> ever seen before. Photos of a yellowish male coming to my feeder can be seen 
>> at https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S35976663 [1]. 
>> 
>> Best, 
>> 
>> Kevin 
>> 
>> Kevin J. McGowan
>> Project Manager
>> Distance Learning in Bird Biology
>> Cornell Lab of Ornithology
>> 159 Sapsucker Woods Road
>> Ithaca, NY 14850
>> k...@cornell.edu
>> 607-254-2452 
>> 
>> -
>> 
>> FROM: bounce-121504884-3493...@list.cornell.edu 
>>  on behalf of W. Larry Hymes 
>> 
>> SENT: Friday, May 5, 2017 4:53 PM
>> TO: CAYUGABIRDS-L
>> SUBJECT: [cayugabirds-l] Further info Yellow House Finch 
>> 
>> Upon reading the literature, it appears that captive house finches can 
>> have yellow coloration because of the lack of carotenoids in their 
>> diet.  Would the most likely explanation for this particular bird be 
>> that it escaped from captivity?
>> 
>> Larry
>> 
>> -- 
>> 
>> 
>> W. Larry Hymes
>> 120 Vine Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
>> (H) 607-277-0759, w...@cornell.edu
>> 
>> 
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>> cayugabirds-l Thread; Date ; Earlier messages; Messages by Date 2017/04/25 
>> [cayugabirds-l] the colors of spring Melanie Uhlir 
>> 
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>> [6] 
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[cayugabirds-l] Brant Seneca Lake State Park

[Dave K]

21 Brant on Lake West End of Seneca Lake State Park 9 a.m.

Sent from Huawei Mobile

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