Hi all, Yesterday I paddled Cayuga Inlet and Wegmans backside area. I came across a small pocket of bird activity consisting of two Yellow warblers, both singing half garbled songs, so I presume young males, a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, a bunch of chickadees and WB nuthatches.
Other birds of interest were a young Red-tailed Hawk vocalizing loudly and scaring all the birds including some mallards, young cedar waxwings begging form their parents, a Pewee and an Eastern Phoebe. I have been seeing and hearing the Ravens on and off from my house, so it seems they are sticking in my area. On Friday is saw one being chased by an Am. crow Yesterday I also had some nice assortments of dragonflies in the inlet. A Black-shouldered Spinylegs Dromogomphus spinosus landed on my boat and challenged me to take a picture. But by the time I got my safely stored cell phone he was off. But later came and settled for a another fraction of a second. I wonder why he decided to choose my boat when my colleagues and friends also were with me (two more kayaks and a canoe). May be mine was of a lighter color. Or he knew there was someone in the boat who would appreciate him. I also had eight other common species of odonates. About four or five weeks ago on my trip to Montezuma, along Seneca river trail I came across a species of wasp digging holes for their young and provide food before closing the hole. It was amazing to watch them. They would dig out mud and gravel and throw it out and occasionally they would flatten out the mound they created with their legs. Later when they were filling out the holes they would gather all the gravel and fill it into the hole. Here is a clip of wasp, which was identified by Jason Dombroskie as GREAT GOLDEN DIGGER WASP digging a hole. At some later stage I will post the video of it providing the young with a grass hopper and sealing the nest hole. While I was videoing these episode a Song Sparrow was very alert about my presence so it piqued all the time I was there, that was about 35 minutes. Also an osprey on the nest, probably a female is calling for her mate in the background. At one point a Blue Dancer flies through my view point! Hope you will enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqBmlroOwjM It is better to watch in 1080 HD mode! Cheers 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/ --
