Hi all, Finally, I broke down of not driving that far and decided to go look for Townsend Solitaire and snow geese, which I am obsessed by their sheer numbers. When I arrived Wes and Debbie were looking for it and Wes told me that it was seen just 10 min before he arrived. So we spent some time looking at other things such as Cedar waxwings taking drink from the stream after eating lots of Hawthorne berries. We were about 500 m south from the "green gate". Finally, as we were started walking towards the gate, I spotted a grey bird on top of leafless tree. But before we could get a closer look it flew away. May be fifteen minutes later or so I spotted it in a far away tree through the cedar branches. With Kevin's scope we confirmed it. Then later it landed very close to us. We could get some pictures enough for identification of the bird. There were several other people while we were there.
After this I went north to look for snow geese, near junction of 336 on the west side of the road were some 1000 geese feeding in the corn field, but far away from the road. Many more were coming down from the sky from Seneca Lake. I also watched two tom Turkeys cross the road and get stopped by the army depot fence. I pulled aside and watched. They were panicky when the cars from both directions came zooming down the highway. They would go north if the car came from south and vice versa. Finally, when there was a lull in traffic, they took off over the fence. I drove along back roads between 96A and 96 with no signs of snow geese. But I did come across a huge flock of several hundred Starlings with 1/3 beautifully plumaged shining Brown-headed Cowbirds and a few Red-winged blackbirds mixed in. When they took off they made a huge swooshing sound and murmurs. Unfortunately, they left the sides of the road and landed far away in the field. A medium sized flock of Horned lark flew overhead. At Cayuga SP, there were several hundred Tundra swans, many Redheads, Black ducks, Gadwalls and Canada Geese. It is always fun to watch arguments between family groups of Tundra Swans for coming too close to each other. I am not sure if they are greeting the new comers or scolding them to be off. At least body language seems to suggest that they are threatening. In Varick, I came across the flocks of Snow Geese and more joining and seemed like they were coming from the east side of the lake. But as usual they were in the middle of the lake. Somewhere in Varick, I also heard and saw a flock of Redpolls, sitting on top of tree. All I could get was a glimpse of them through the binoculars before they took off. Lastly, I stopped at Center Road and Rockriver road in Ovid and spent 45 minutes. I did not see any Short-eared Owls. Finally, as I was approaching about a mile north of Taughannock Falls, I watched a deer come from the left in front of my car. I braked hard, but I still hit deer at the passenger corner, and it jumped into a ditch and splashed the car with mud. Impact seemed much slower because I had braked, but still it broke my fender and I am not sure what I broke of it. It seemed to have scrambled into the bushes, when I looked for it. I hope it survives, I feel sad :-( Meena Meena Haribal Ithaca NY 14850 http://haribal.org/ http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ -- 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/ --