It was a greyish day, but still lots of good sightings. Total of 43 species between 8 and 4. Started at Myers with a juvenile red-tailed hawk sitting on one of the "campsites". A pair of ospreys on the lakeside of Salt Point demonstrated how to collect sticks for nesting material as a pair of kingfishers dived along the stream. Saw several kestrels on the power lines along 90 as we approached Union Springs - highlights of buffleheads and redheads at Factory Pond and the later roadside pond near the school. More of the "usuals" appeared as we neared River Rd. at the north end of Cayuga Lake: cormorant, ring-necked ducks, and great blue herons. Montezuma visitor center and wildlife drive yielded Northern shovelers, blue winged and green winged teal, coots, gadwalls, American widgeon,swan sp. in the distance and a pair of northern harriers hunting over the main pool. Along East Rd., and later along 31, pintails joined the rafts of waterfowl along with several pairs of Am. black ducks. We spent a short time at the MAC in Savannah, but the starlings were the only residents of the purple martin house today. LOTS of water and no sandhill cranes on Carncross, but we did find another pair of hunting northern harriers at Martens Tract as well as phoebes nesting under the observation platform there. Had only seen one bald eagle at the Visitor Center earlier, so we checked on Armitage Rd where one adult head was visible peering out of the nest. Also revisited Mudlock and think we saw where the eagles there were building a new nest after losing their previous one in last month's heavy windstorm. A quick trip back down the east side of the Lake gave us views of a pair of wood ducks at Factory Pond, several small groups of red breasted mergansers, one common merganser pair, a group of 16 double crested cormorants, many pairs of buffleheads, and finally 3 common loons. Plus the many robins, grackles, red winged blackbirds, rock doves, mourning doves, mockingbirds etc. that we passed in yards and trees along the way. Many thanks to Chris Lajewski who filled us in on all the recent happenings and sightings of the Audobon Center and Montezuma in general during the past few weeks. Thankful for a homeschool day-on-the-road.Colleen Richards ____________________________________________________________ Why Your City Doctors No Longer Prescribe Metformin Vibrant Health Network http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/58e5d76450059576411bcst04duc --
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/ --
