To give credit, Sunday a week ago in the evening (24 May), I was at Stewart Park and saw what seemed to me like a lot of DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS for this time of year in the treetops of Jetty Woods. I did not recall them spending the breeding season here, so I was counting them for an eBird report (I was disappointed that 87 wasn't enough to get the coveted prompt), when Dan Otis came over. He walks Jetty Woods and the white lighthouse jetty regularly, as in every day throughout the winter. He suggested there might be even more not visible from that vantage and asked if the cormorants breed here. I promptly and confidently replied, "No." Then he mentioned a nest he'd seen in the trees over the trail. I couldn't say anything about that, but I did note that most of the cormorants in view were immatures with various shades of gray neck & breast, and those which did have adult type all-dark plumage mostly did not show the breeding-plumage double crests, for which I prefer to call the species "OLD-MAN HAIRY-EYEBROW CORMORANT." I found one bird with slight crests to show Dan. I left feeling I had imparted some knowledge, but it turns out I was ignorant or at least out of date. I think it was on the morning of Tuesday 26 May I was back at Stewart Park hoping to hear the Yellow-throated Warbler which France Kehas-Dewaghe heard the day before (no luck). I met Ken Rosenberg who informed me that not only was there a nest at Jetty Woods, but it was visible from near the Cascadilla Boathouse & path by the swan pond (see Kevin McGowan's photo after his series of the Arctic Tern), and Ken had seen a cormorant (or 2?) gathering sticks. Perhaps he saw a cormorant on the nest as well. I don't recall all the details, which he can provide. I was busy readjusting my concept of local cormorants locally and feeling like a bit of a dope.
--Dave Nutter On Jun 03, 2015, at 09:56 AM, Jay McGowan <jw...@cornell.edu> wrote: > In the trees over the creek at Jetty Woods, DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS are > roosting and loafing as usual, and, as Kevin pointed out to us yesterday, one > has constructed and is sitting in a NEST! This is up in one of the tall red > maples where the birds always sit. > > Cheers, > Jay > > -- > 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/ --
