[cayugabirds-l] Birds Today
Having seen/heard 96 new birds so far for the year, I started out today thinking, maybe, I could find 100 for the month of January. (Silly game - but it gets me outside!) I hung around a private feeder until 9 am when the Purple Finch showed up. Beautiful male, backlit by the sun. #97. Then I spent an hour at the compost piles picking through the hundreds of gulls that were waiting to be fed from the CU dining halls' refuse. Ring-billed, Herring, and Great Black-backed Gulls of all ages but no white-winged gulls. (Checking in later with Jay, he missed them today as well.) There was a report of Red-necked Grebe yesterday at Ladoga (how come the report never made it to the listserve and/or the RBA??). Scoping into the brisk south wind was not fun, but I did manage to find what I thought might have been the grebe. It was bouncing around in the waves and then went to rest with its head tucked - and then disappeared altogether. So I had to make due with a Tompkins County Eared Grebe. And lots of Long-tailed Ducks. Just about then Steve Fast showed up with an invitation to lunch at Dories, so off we went. From the boathouse in Aurora we spotted at least 10 Horned Grebes (no Eared Grebe there) plus the expected Goldeneye, Buffleheads, and a few White-winged Scoters. There were no White-fronted Geese at Farleys and none among the hundreds of Canadas on Mill Pond in Union Springs. The rest of the lake north was frozen except for a channel between Cayuga and Mud Lock. No Lesser Black-backed Gull at Dean's Cove. No grebes of loons along Elm Beach Road - but there were two WW Scoters. Finally, back to Ithaca and up again to Ladoga. Where I did, finally, get a satisfactory look at the Red-necked Grebe. #98 for the year. Still one more day, but I'm beginning to think that 100 in January is out of reach - for me anyway. 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/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Birds Today Montezuma and Vicinity, Seneca Meadows.
Took a trip today with Renee DePrato and Melissa Penta to Montezuma and vicinity. Our first stop was Towpath Road and the highlight was a GREAT HORNED OWL that first was literally sitting on the road. From a distance we thought it was a really big cat. The bird unfortunately had one bad eye and you can see this in these photos from Melissa's flickr account... http://www.flickr.com/photos/mydigitalmind/7617481278/in/photostream/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/mydigitalmind/7617481956/in/photostream/ The bird stuck around in a tree the whole time we were there after flying up from the road. Knox-Marcellus Marsh appears to have been drawn down so that is where most of the shorebirds were today as the water levels are way down from a week ago. The water levels on Puddler's Marsh are now higher so there were very few shorebirds. Unfortunately, the views to Knox-Marcellus are more distant than from Puddler's. So although there were a lot of shorebirds out there in K-M marsh, they were really hard to see unless you were on 60x with your scope. The vast majority of the shorebirds were LESSER YELLOWLEGS. There were at least 2 GREATER YELLOWLEGS. In addition, we had 3 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, 1 SOLITARY SANDPIPER, 2 KILLDEER, 1 SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, at least 1 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER, and at least 15 LEAST SANDPIPERS. I also had what I thought could be a BAIRD'S, but again, the distance was too much for me to be sure. There were also 2 GREAT EGRETS and many many GREAT BLUE HERONS. I also saw one distant BLUE-WINGED TEAL and there were many many GREEN-WINGED TEAL. From Puddler's marsh, we had a nice look at a PECTORAL SANDPIPER close, also there was a SPOTTED SANDPIPER with 2 fly-over SOLITARY SANDPIPERS that were calling. Puddler's continues to have plenty of gulls and caspian terns. I counted 202 RING-BILLED GULLS and 41 CASPIAN TERNS. I could not relocate the common tern or bonaparte's gulls that I had a week ago here. We also saw 2 GREEN HERONS. Next stop was Seneca Meadows to look for the DICKCISSELS for Melissa and Renee. Unfortunately, there were NO signs of any of these guys. There was another birder who had been there since 8 am with no luck. I heard no songs or buzzy calls. They may have left or were busy feeding young??? We did see many many BOBOLINKS in various plumages and a couple male INDIGO BUNTINGS that put on a show from a weedy area with an amazing variety of wildflowers. Then we went to Van Dyne Sporer Road and from the very end of the road we saw quite a bit. There was a mass of mainly RING-BILLED GULLS and some CASPIAN TERNS flying around fairly distant but easily identifiable with binoculars and especially a scope. I also was lucky to get on a flying LEAST BITTERN and also a BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON in my scope. Unfortunately, these guys landed down in the reeds distant so the others did not get to see them. We did have a nice view of a fly-by AMERICAN BITTERN. There also were AMERICAN COOTS, COMMON GALLINULE and PIED-BILLED GREBE with young. Next stop was Lott Farm, Seneca Agricultural Fairgrounds and we saw at least 4 fully fledged UPLAND SANDPIPERS. A very nice day to say the least. Dave Nicosia Johnson City, NY -- 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] Birds today
On a walk up Leonard Rd.(town of Caroline) this morning, I ran into 3 HERMIT THRUSH. One of them, facing me, looked like a veery; i.e. a small number of pale spots under the throat. I requested it to turn around, at which point its hermitness revealed itself. This afternoon, at 1400 hrs., Susie I checked out the TURKEY VULTURE couple on the ridge of a small barn across the road from 56 Mill St. in the Village of Dryden. We've noted them before several times this spring, but today they were copulating. They were awkward, but managed anyway. Susie is a regular vulturophil. The Dryden Lake GREBES were still there, along with a large flock of D.-C. CORMORANTS. S. S. Fast Brooktondale. -- 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] Birds Today 12-11-10: King Eider, Glaucous Gull, Iceland Gull, Cackling Goose, Short-Eared Owl and hundreds of Robins.
What a great day. Started at Stewart Park around 11 am and found the KING EIDER immediately and exactly where many others had it the last couple days...between the Red and White Lighthouses next to the rocks. Thanks to all for the posts and almost daily updates. What a great bird. The bird was actively swimming and diving and occasionally resting with mallards and others. I got two fuzzy distant digi-scoped images. Not great photos by any means...but good enough to tell it is a king eider. http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/5252643039/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/5252642885/ Then, I had the good fortune of running into Ken Rosenberg and Kevin McGowen at Stewart. Ken pointed out the GLAUCOUS GULL that was found earlier by Tim Lenz and Kevin found the ICELAND GULL- Two species I am unfamilar with. There were also many RING-BILLED, HERRING and GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULLS. Also present was 1 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL-- that makes 6 species of gulls at Stewart! Kevin then found a single CACKLING GOOSE among the many Canadas. There were also many REDHEADs, COMMON MERGANSERS, several COMMON GOLDENEYES, several HOODED MERGANSERS, many MALLARDS and BLACK DUCKS, and a single fly-by RING-NECKED DUCK. Later, went on the Short-Eared Owl trip led by Ann Mitchell to Rafferty Road with fellow Binghamton area birders, Nancy Morgan, Mary Ann and Courtney Moore. After some time, 1 SHORT EARED OWL was found in the distance flying around just after sunset. Prior to sunset, one of the highlights at Rafferty were hundreds of AMERICAN ROBINS flying by to the north. There were also several HORNED LARKS, ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS, AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS, MOCKINGBIRDS, 1 fly-by NORTHERN FLICKER and at least 1 RED-TAILED HAWK. Dave Nicosia Johnson City, NY -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
