Hi all, Thirteen brave people joined me today for a cold, wet, and windy trip up Cayuga Lake. Conditions were far from ideal but we saw some good birds nonetheless. An early highlight came at Myers Point in the form of a 1st-cycle THAYER's GULL on the spit. It stood out immediately with frosted wingtips and overall small size, and we were able to get nice looks at it as it played with sticks in the water and sat on the spit. Other birds at Myers included Surf Scoter, Snow Bunting (two flying north), and a Dunlin (also flying north.) Lots of loons were moving, but not too many waterfowl, similar to yesterday. Thayer's photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111137855303614931880/EarlyWinter2012#5806732909777065906 ...and continuing from there.
We then headed up the lake, but despite frequent stops and admirable perseverance, the strong winds proved too much and we found very few birds of interest on lake. At Mud Lock, however, we found a COMMON TERN flying around and landing on buoys, and a large flock of 40+ Pine Siskins flew over. The Visitor Center pool at Montezuma has a good variety of waterfowl. Also, as we arrived here I am fairly sure I heard a Common Redpoll call from somewhere out in the weeds, perhaps with a goldfinch flock we saw later. At Benning a large flock of Dunlin contained a White-rumped Sandpiper, but most of the group took off before we could get good looks. At least eight Wilson's Snipe were more cooperative in the back. We made a quick stop to look at the three continuing CATTLE EGRETS at Goosehaven on Rt. 89, then headed over to East Road. We quickly picked out five ROSS'S GEESE in with several hundred Snow Geese, then at least three more Ross's in with the rest of the flock for a total of eight. A briefly had a CACKLING GOOSE in with the Canadas but couldn't refind it for the group. A large group of Dunlin along the south part of Knox-Marsellus proved to contain at least seven WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS when finally seen in decent light from Towpath, but sporadic and chilling rain made viewing very difficult. Sixteen Sandhill Cranes were foraging around here as well, as well as nine TUNDRA SWANS, my first of the season. Thanks again to everyone who came along today, I hope the birds made up for the unpleasant weather. -- Jay McGowan Macaulay Library Cornell Lab of Ornithology 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/ --
