I spent three hours at Hammond Hill State Forest east of Ithaca this afternoon (starting at 12:10pm) watching migrants. As others have noted, there was an amazing flight of waterfowl throughout Tompkins County and beyond. This flight was strongly dominated by Canada Geese. I was curious how much of a concentrating effect Cayuga Lake had for the geese Would there still be some out to the east or if were they headed toward Cayuga Lake. The numbers of geese were just as high at Hammond Hill as Jessie and I had seen from Monkey Run earlier in the day. In comparing numbers with Luke Seitz and others watching from Cornell campus, it seemed that we recorded very close to the same number of birds. While some of these birds may have been the same, the great majority were probably different suggesting a very broad front given others reported similar numbers in Trumansburg. It would be fun to organize several different stations in the Finger Lakes (and beyond) the next time we have such a flight on a weekend.
Jessie Barry and Jeff Gerbracht joined me for part of the time I was here and helped me find much more than I would have done on my own. Highlights included 8 Golden Eagles, 1 PINE GROSBEAK, 1 Northern Shrike, 1 White-winged Crossbill and at least 24 Evening Grosbeaks. Waterfowl made up the bulk of the show: 297 Snow Goose, 26575 Canada Geese, 13 Cackling Geese, 1 Tundra Swan, 1 Wood Duck, 2 Northern Pintail A complete checklist with some photos can be found at the link below. I broke counts of Canadas into 20 minute segments for anyone interested (which may just be me!) http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S13354236 Good birding, Chris Christopher Wood eBird Project Leader Cornell Lab of Ornithology http://ebird.org http://birds.cornell.edu -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
