I thought the rain might put the streak in jeopardy, but the light-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK was right there again in the lone tree in the open field on the south side of Burdick Hill Road today at 1:15 PM. This made a cool 7 sightings in my last 7 visits, evoking welcome memories of Rennie Stennett.
I expected nothing more in the light rain, but I was glad to be proven wrong. First I heard and saw a KILLDEER migrating due north. Then, trying to refind the hawk after it moved from its conspicuous vantage, I found a second Rough-legged Hawk, this one a dark morph, on the middle treeline. I watched this bird drop and jam its talons into something on the ground, then fly back to the trees. Finally, I also saw two AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS circling overhead - maybe the most incongruous bird in this flurry of pleasant surprises. The EASTERN SCREECH-OWL has continued in our yard in northeast Ithaca through at least yesterday. This morning I went out and collected 10 pellets from under its next box. Tilden and I dissected them. We found mostly rodent bones, but also what I think are the upper mandibles of two different birds. One of them looks like a House Finch bill to me. The other is long and pointed; any birds whose bills would be candidates for a match all also would seem too big for a screech-owl to take down. Here's a photo. https://plus.google.com/photos/114049026073343451957/albums/5291963262350115 713/5982902714934186690?pid=5982902714934186690 <https://plus.google.com/photos/114049026073343451957/albums/529196326235011 5713/5982902714934186690?pid=5982902714934186690&oid=114049026073343451957> &oid=114049026073343451957 It's a mystery to me. Any suggestions? Mark Chao --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com -- 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/ --
