Seven SFO participants joined me for an all day trip up the lake and in the Montezuma area on Sunday. The morning was very windy, overcast and chilly. While the afternoon brought out the sun, and a bit of warmth, the wind was relentless all day, which was a hindrance in finding and getting clear looks at some birds.
We started on Drake Rd. hoping for Bohemian Waxwings. While we didn't find them we did find a nice variety of other birds including Carolina Wren, Song Sparrow, N. Cardinal, Blue Jay, House Finch, Red-winged Blackbird, Robin, and Mourning Dove. Ladoga and Myers Point were our next stop. Here despite the wind and whitecaps we found Am Coot, Ring-necked Duck, Redhead Bufflehead, Mallard, Common Loon, Killdeer, Ring-billed Gull and Great Black-backed Gull. Due to the wind we made only brief stops on Lake Rd and at Long Point. Our next genuinely productive stop was in Union Springs, at both the Factory St. and Mill Ponds. The Factory St. pond gave us the first sun shining through the clouds on great views of Gadwall and Blue-winged Teal, and a beautiful female Belted Kingfisher. We heard N Flicker here, but never did see it, and found Brown-headed Cowbirds as well. The Mill Pond was almost devoid of waterfowl, but we did find both Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, giving us good views of the difference in bill sizes, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Tufted Titmouse and Black-capped Chickadees and Tree Swallows. >From Union Springs we went up to the Village offices in Cayuga, having good looks on the way at Osprey both on a nest platform and one sitting on the ground near by. At the village offices we added Greater Scaup, and then on to Mud Lock where we had good views of the new Bald Eagle nest and one adult Eagle. The chicks were hunkered down and not visible. At the visitor center and wildlife drive at Montezuma we added Green-winged Teal, Canvasback, and one of our highlight birds, a Caspian Tern, seen from the tower, sitting with several Ring-billed Gulls in the shallow water on the right side of the wildlife drive. At Tschache Pool we found Pied-billed Grebes, which at least a few of us saw engaging in courtship behavior, Trumpeter Swans, and had a chance to hear Coot calls. The highlight here was a Peregrine Falcon initially seen sitting on a mound of cattails quite far out. It took a bit of patience to get a solid ID, but we were able to get good enough views between wind gusts to be confident. When it took off it's shape, long pointed and strong flight despite the wind added to our certainty. We skipped Mays and headed up towards Savannah with a stop on East Rd. just below the over look. Several of our group, though not all, saw N. Harrier. Here we found DC Cormorants, Ruddy Ducks, and several Great Blue Heron, as well as a Red-tailed Hawk with prey in the fields across the road. It was joined by a second Red-tailed Hawk, and they ended up in what looked like a confrontation over the prey, with one on either side of it, both with wings spread wide. The second bird left after perhaps 30 seconds. Our final stop was briefly at Carncross Rd. with the hope of finding shorebirds. The wind was very strong and getting solid ID's of the shorebirds we did see proved not possible. On the way back down the east side of the lake we added our last bird if the day, an Am. Kestral sitting on a wire. All told despite the wind a very good day of birding. Bill Baker --------------------------------------------- This message was sent using Endymion MailMan. http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/ -- 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/ --
