[cayugabirds-l] Sunday Birds
After walking up and down Salt Road in the Summerhill SF this morning (highlight - Brown Creeper), I stopped by Myers town park and the private marina. I was surprised to find the (a) Purple Sandpiper still foraging among the gulls out on the spit. The lake was quite rough and rain was spitting in, so my scan of the water was quick - one Common Loon flying north just above the surface. South from the marina the lake was again nearly empty. 5 Mallards, one DC Cormorant, and a small group of four Surf Scoters were riding the waves. Also of interest was a Merlin perched on one of the snags above the pool behind Ladoga. Bob McGuire -- 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/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Sunday birds--warblers, Red Crossbills, LBBGull
Hi all, I birded at the Park Preserve on Irish Settlement Road for a few hours this morning with a briefer stop at the Durland Preserve on Ellis Hollow Creek Road. Highlights from Park were a plethora of warblers, including CAPE MAY, BAY-BREASTED, BLACKPOLL, TENNESSEE, WILSON'S, Nashville, Magnolia, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Yellow-rumped, Black-and-white, Common Yellowthroat, and Ovenbird. Other birds here included a spontaneously calling EASTERN SCREECH-OWL in the spruces, BARRED OWL in the ravine, and one PHILADELPHIA VIREO. Activity had quieted down substantially by 8:30 or so. Durland Preserve was fairly quiet around 10:00. No sign of the Olive-sided, but I only waited 15 minutes or so. Highlight here were two RED CROSSBILLS (sounded like Type 3, which is what I think the ones I had in my yard last week were as well). They flew over quite low (tree top level) just inside the preserve, heading east (so basically flying along Ellis Hollow Creek Road.) Looks like this may be a good season for Red Crossbills. Ben Barkley reported flyover WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS from campus last weekend as well, although I have not heard a follow-up to that report. Finally, a small 2nd or 3rd cycle LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL found yesterday by Kevin McGowan was still present at the Cornell compost facility off Stevenson Road just now. Good birding, -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/ --
[cayugabirds-l] sunday birds
HI All - Yesterday my son took a walk to the woods. My house faces Cayuga lake and back of house is a hill. Over the hill is a big field with a pond at the north end and near a woods. There on the pond he saw 1 Wood Duck, a pair of Mallards and 3 Buffleheads. We often see Woodies and Mallards there but it was a surprise to see the cute Buffleheads. He was careful not to scare them. Yes, the Cardinals are singing, the woodpeckers are drumming and my pair of Carolina Wrens are busy deciding just where to make their nest on which porch of my house !! Late afternoon Friday there was a large raft of Snow Geese way out on lake from Wyers Point. Naomi Brewer Sheldrake/Wyers Point -- 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/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Sunday birds at FLSM
late posting: During my lunch break Sunday at the Finger Lakes School of Massage (FLSM) on Rt96: Wood thrush – heard 3, saw one (my first) Yellow Warblers – heard at least 5 common yellow-throat – heard 2 gray catbirds – heard at least 3 (at one point they were all just mewing in stereo) eastern phoebe – 1 goldfinches – 3 males (very yellow) chickadees – too many to count Only the chickadees, Phoebe and the Goldfinchers were there on Saturday. Cheers, --Michele ~~ Michele Mannella, Graduate Programs Coordinator Department of English Cornell University | 250 Goldwin Smith Hall | Ithaca, NY 14853 Office hours: Mon/Tue 8:00 -4:30 | Thu/Fri 8:00 – 4:30 Ph: 607-255-7989 www.arts.cornell.edu/english ~~ -- 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/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Sunday Birds
I birded around the lake this afternoon. At Stewart Park, I saw several LESSER SCAUP, BUFFLEHEADS, and COOTS mixed in with the geese and seagulls. Next, I went to Cass Park. There were six RUDDY DUCKS cruising on the inlet, along with lots of COMMON MERGANSERS. I saw four woodpecker species, including a SAPSUCKER. I thought I saw a TREE SPARROW at Hog Hole, but wasn't 100% sure. Finally, I went to Taughannock and saw three close up COMMON LOONS, and a BROWN CREEPER. Bruce Packard Groton -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Sunday birds
Upon entering the Stevenson compost compound to census crows today, I was greeted by the juvenile THAYER'S GULL and an adult LESSER-BLACK BACKED GULL. (Smooth, clean, chocolaty dark chest, all dark bill, intermediately sloped forehead, frosty white under the wingtips, and not-quite-dark-enough upper wingtips made it jump out of the background of young Herring Gulls. By "jump" I mean, like, flinch when you cast your eyes over a crowd when you have a frown on your face; if it wasn't your spouse or child, you never would have noticed.) Unfortunately I was quickly distracted and never saw either again in the next 2 hours. I should say that last weekend I saw 2 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls at the compost; one that appears to have been there for several weeks that has nearly no white spotting on the wingtips, and another with large white spots who had a huge molt gap with p8 and p7 (?) not visible. I don't know which was there today, if it was either of those two. My distraction cleared the piles, but soon some crows and gulls came back. After a while of watching crows, a pale first cycle ICELAND GULL showed up on the piles. Eventually I realized that 2 pale first cycle Iceland Gulls were present. I never saw them together, but I found it unusually easy to refind the "one" Iceland Gull, and then when I was taking a photograph of one the image showed up on the screen and it had in addition to the main subject the pure white wingtip of a 2nd Iceland. Too many hawks and too many people eventually led to the complete desertion of the compost, with the crows hiding uphill for more than a half hour and the gulls circling higher and higher until they drifted out of sight. I thought that they appeared to head off SE, but an hour or so later from Mt. Pleasant I still saw a large group of circling gulls over Ithaca. Mt. Pleasant had little to offer but quiet and solitude. I did see one local Rough-legged Hawk and a few Red-tailed Hawks and Turkey Vultures. Most interesting was a kettle of circling COMMON RAVENS far off to the east. I found them through binoculars as large circling birds and expected to find them to be vultures or hawks when I got the scope on them. But, no, they were six ravens! I've seen very large congregations of ravens in the West, and I've run into juvenile bands of up to 35 in New York, but this was my first experience with what appeared to be a "migrating" group, using thermals to gain altitude and head south. I have no idea who they were or what they were doing, but if it was early September instead of November you couldn't have told them from a group of Broad-tailed Hawks by behavior alone. The only other birds of note today were single males of Common Goldeneye and Bufflehead on Dryden Lake, along with some Common and Hooded mergansers. Oddly, these ducks were seeking refuge from the hunters at the south end of they lake by hugging the shore on the north end, amongst the goose and duck decoys tethered there. Kevin -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[cayugabirds-l] Sunday birds
This morning I spent an enchanted hour in our hawthorn grove (which is actually an old farm dump with hawthorns, sumac, grapevines, and young ash trees along a little creek) where I found a great mixed flock. I felt like a novice in that I puzzled over several warblers that looked like Yellow-rumps to me, but may have been "more interesting" . The only warblers I was sure of were 4 Common Yellow-throats. Good to see a Phoebe, a large flock of White-throated Sparrows (some singing a little), many Cedar Waxwings, Robins, Blue Jays, Catbirds, GC Kinglets, a couple of RC Kinglets, an assortment of woodpeckers and other usuals, a vireo which I think was Red-eyed (also singing) but might have been Philadelphia, 2 young Purple Finches, 3 fly-over Tree Swallows, and, best of all, a singing and crawling-around-mouselike WINTER WREN. The Phoebe hung around near the house all afternoon, making me think it was one familiar with the nest in our barn. It vocalized a great deal, though never calling its name. Nancy Dickinson Mecklenburg -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --