The skinny: the mowers were already aware of the Kildeer nest and had it staked off, said the babies run, but they are mindful. The shared amazing raptor and fox stories with me...read on! Am in a hurry, so pardon any future mistakes.
The long story: Everyone at Newman was super nice and caring! I called the main number and talked to a Mike who thought I was a prank caller and then passed me on to the superintendent, who is also named Mike, who said I should come down and go in the golf cart and show him where the birds were...in the meantime, Mike#1 walks outside and see the mowers who tell him they already know about the Killdeer. I arrive an hour later and talk to Mike #1 thinking he is Mike #2. After we sort out a lot of confusion :) the mower shows up, and we talk birds! He tells us of the time he and other mowers saw a Bald Eagle coming in to get an owlet mid air and the momma owl dive-bombing the Bald Eagle out of nowhere sending the eagle pummling (sp?) to the ground. another time (last year) he said the owl was taking two ducklings at a time up to the nest. Recently, he said they watched a red fox hunting geese or ducklings and taking them back to her cubs, teaching them how to hunt. He also said something about trying to round up the Mallard ducklings to save them from the owl, but the owl was faster and won. I might be confusing a few details here, but you can see the mowers are animal lovers, and Mike #1 is going to be looking for the Killdeer chicks tonight when he goes golfing. (I showed him a video of what they look like.) I told them about the mink. In case I was not clear in my last report, it was a mink I saw on the inlet near the docks transporting a kit in her mouth. They had another story about an osprey and four foot long carp story...which took me to my osprey story where I saw one hunting in the inlet last year. It landed on the water as if to bring up a fish, it struggle to lift off, then it was gone with bubbles coming up. I have since seen similar bubble where it is a beaver...so I really don't know what I saw; it is still a mystery. Mike #1, who is a local fisherman, said a large Pike could have done that. So, that's the news from Newman Golf Course!!! Happy Birding!!! -- 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/ --
