Went up the east side of Cayuga Lake and to Montezuma with my friends, Dan Watkins, Rich Youket and Renee DePrato.
Our first stop was Stewart Park and there really wasn't much. We had a male CANVASBACK and male REDHEAD in the far southeast part of the lake south of the docks. There were also BUFFLEHEAD, COMMON MERGANSERS and a raft of AMERICAN COOTS. Many of these birds also could be seen from East Park too. No loons or grebes present. Next stop was the Myer's marina and there continues a nice diversity of waterfowl including nice views of both GREATER and LESSER SCAUP, RING-NECKED DUCK, REDHEAD, HOODED and COMMON MERGANSERS, BUFFLEHEAD and AMERICAN COOT. At Long Point, there were 2 WILD TURKEYS running around near the lighthouse looking very out of place! The best birds there were 16 COMMON GOLDENEYE. >From the Aurora Boathouse we had 3 HORNED GREBES, 2 close to full breeding plumage and one closer to non-breeding. There was also one PIED-BILLED GREBE. The north end of the lake had a small raft of SNOW GEESE around 200 or so. Gone are the thousands of weeks ago. Montezuma main pool was loaded with mainly CANVASBACK. There were hundreds. In addition, we picked out NORTHERN PINTAIL, GADWALL, AMERICAN WIGEON, NORTHERN SHOVELER, GREEN-WINGED TEAL, REDHEAD, 100 or so RING-NECKED DUCK, REDHEAD, SCAUP sp., BUFFLEHEAD, COMMON MERGANSER and AMERICAN COOTS. There were also two TRUMPETER SWANS. We also had gorgeous adult BALD EAGLE that flew by fairly low. Then we had our FOY OSPREY. Tschache Pool had 1 MUTE SWAN and 5 TRUMPETER SWANS, many GADWALL, loads of AMERICAN WIGEON, some NORTHERN PINTAIL, NORTHERN SHOVELER, REDHEAD, many many RING-NECKED DUCKS, BUFFLEHEAD, HOODED MERGANSER and a few AMERICAN COOTS. Gone are the thousands of NORTHERN PINTAIL that were at May's Point a couple weeks ago. There was not much at May's but we did get a flyover GOLDEN EAGLE here which was a nice surprise. >From east road, there were again many many CANVASBACK among other typical aythya species and other waterfowl. We picked up 5 RUDDY DUCKS within the waterfowl here. We did get a TUNDRA SWAN here too among several SNOW GEESE. There was a fairly large flock of SNOW GEESE(hundreds) visible from east road in the mucklands. It was also nice to see the TREE SWALLOWS back flying around the boxes on East Rd. We also had a lone DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANT flyby here and there was one GREAT BLUE HERON. We totaled 67 species. Nothing unusual today but great birds and great company made for another fantastic birding trip. The milder weather also was VERY nice too!! Dave Nicosia -- 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/ --
