Just a few notes from today while doing some yard cleanup activities and when returning from errands.
Heard a Purple Finch and a FIELD SPARROW singing in our yard mid-afternoon today. Later, heard distinct "kek-kek-kek-kek-kek...!" call series from a COOPER'S HAWK in the spruces adjacent to our property in the Finger Lakes Land Trust Etna Nature Preserve. Went to investigate and the bird took flight from near the edge of the stand with a probable Blue Jay (noticeably smaller) in hot pursuit, but both were just out of main sight for me. Later, heard several American Crows and Blue Jays mobbing something in the tops of the spruce woodlot again...could be they were mobbing the (returned?) Cooper's or perhaps the Cooper's earlier had instigated the mobbing of an owl (if so, presumably a Great Horned Owl) or something else? Didn't have much time to figure it out, but it was cool to hear the Cooper's Hawk "kekking" earlier. Both Cooper's Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawks have nested (or attempted to) in the spruces stands in the Etna Nature Preserve in past years. Good birding! Sincerely, Chris T-H -- Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes TARU Product Line Manager and Field Applications Engineer Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850 W: 607-254-2418 M: 607-351-5740 F: 607-254-1132 http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp -- 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/ --