Yesterday afternoon on my day off I biked over to Stewart Park. This morning and afternoon I stopped by there briefly in the taxi. Among the many CANADA GEESE, MALLARDS, DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS, and RING-BILLED, HERRING, and GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULLS, there was a changing mix of migrants.
Yesterday (Tuesday 11 Oct) afternoon:
Around the Swan Pond there were several YELLOW-RUMPED (MYRTLE) WARBLERS. They were separate, mobile, and hard to count, but I saw at least 3 at once, and I think there were at least 6 and probably more like 8. By the weedy overgrown boatramp next to the dock I saw a single (WESTERN) PALM WARBLER and a couple SONG SPARROWS.
A pair of WOOD DUCKS squealed as it flew from one part of the Swan Pond to the other. Later I saw a single male WOOD DUCK out on the lake. The males are in fine breeding plumage these days. 6 COMMON MERGANSERS swam by the red lighthouse breakwater. A single male LESSER SCAUP swam offshore. Like the recent photos, there seemed no doubt about the ID, which made me wonder if this is a different bird, and the ambiguous scaup departed. A flock of 7 AMERICAN COOTS was together off the Swan Pond while an eighth individual was far to the east. A pair of NORTHERN SHOVELERS (male in breeding plumage) swam far off the east end of Stewart Park. They were tipping up as Mallards do, but which is unusual for shovelers. A single female-ish HOODED MERGANSER rested on the lake. A single AMERICAN BLACK DUCK swam on the lake. A single breeding plumage male REDHEAD seemed to have lost his buddy of recent days - there had been 2 on the 8th I saw 3 PIED-BILLED GREBES, a single and a duo.
Off all these, only the AMERICAN BLACK DUCK, the REDHEAD, and the single AMERICAN COOT were obvious enough to be seen from the taxi this morning. Additions included several GREEN-WINGED TEAL.
This afternoon the big surprise was finding a flock of ten GREAT EGRETS resting on one of the more branchy dead trees lying offshore. Within the same view on adjacent logs were 3 GREAT BLUE HERONS (a 4th stood in the foreground along the shore), and a bunch of DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS. Yet another GREAT EGRET was hunting in the wetlands of Jetty Woods. On one of the mats of floating vegetation off Stewart Park there were at least 7 RUDDY DUCKS - 5 sleeping female types I think, 1 diving female-type, and 1 alert non-breedling plumage male. There were also several other sleeping birds there which I think were GREEN-WINGED TEAL.
The Great Egret fall-out is the biggest I've seen at the south end of Cayuga Lake, my previous maximum being 3, I think, and it provoked Mark Chao's coveted "confirm" prompt on eBird. By the way it's been over a month since I saw the other 2 Great Egrets which roosted in Jetty Woods for over a month. I think I last saw them on the morning of September 7th, but I think they were last reported by Lee Ann Van Leer on the evening of September 8th and someone else another evening. After a front passed through I looked for them in the early morning and the late evening and did not find them, and I did not made a big effort since.
Since learning that the herbiciding of Cayuga Inlet and Treman Marina happened yesterday and today (not waiting until the 13th as all the signs suggested) I made a quick stop in the taxi at Treman Marina this afternoon as well. There were several DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS fishing in the marina and the inlet, and I saw a single COMMON MERGANSER in the inlet. There were also numerous RING-BILLED and a few HERRING GULLS on the marina docks, and a few RING-BILLED GULLS on the inlet. A pair of MALLARDS rested on one of the dragon boat docks. Although the red lighthouse breakwater had been full of gulls and cormorants when I had scoped from Stewart Park, it was empty when I viewed from Treman, but there were plenty of gulls, including several GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULLS on the white lighthouse jetty.
A male MERLIN perched atop a tree across NYS 89 from the Cass Park skating rink.
--Dave Nutter
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