Hi all, This morning I found a singing male CERULEAN WARBLER along Salmon Creek Road in Lansing. It was west of the road near the north end of the forested area that includes the Salmon Creek Bird Sanctuary. The bird was singing at about (42.6122, -76.5367). Although it was audible from the road, it was fairly far back in the woods. It was singing a decidedly atypical song variation, so I'm glad I was able to get a look and confirm that's what it was. A recording of the interesting song and some photos are here: https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S70340365
This is the first report of this species in the Salmon Creek area that I'm aware of since 2014, although of course two decades ago it was the epicenter of the Cerulean population in Tompkins County. Hopefully this one will stick around and maybe have some success. There were two widely spaced reports of Ceruleans on Shindagin Hollow Road this spring, which is intriguing, but otherwise there have been very few records outside obvious migrants in the country in recent years. Meanwhile nearby, at least five VESPER SPARROWS were singing from fields near the northern corner of Conlon Road (42.5815, -76.5148). I didn't check on them today, but recently some of us have had up to three singing GRASSHOPPER SPARROWS in the fields on either side of the north end of Scofield Road, also in Lansing. Cheers, Jay -- Jay McGowan Ithaca, NY jw...@cornell.edu -- 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/ --