I can add to Marie's observations with a few more species. There was a flyover
Green Heron. Marsh Wrens were everywhere and in one case were feeding babies.
There were several GB Herons with trying to swallow a large bullhead. There was
a family of Coots, and some very small ducklings (
Marie Read noted that this weekend the huge Rt 90 yard sale is stalling
traffic up the lake on rt 90 to Rt 20 MNWR.
Here us an alt. route.
Take 34B to Ridge rd turn-off N of Scipioville, (~1.5 mi after Empire Fence
sign) , at curve go left onto Ridge Rd.
if you pass Scipioville Baptist
On 23 July while kayaking on Cayuga Lake, my bird sightings included a Bald
Eagle, several ospreys, some double-breasted cormorants, a kettle of TVs
perched at the waters edge, and what appeared to be a single adult female
Common Merganser with a brood of 32 chicks in tow. One disadvantage of solo
I'm sitting in HOT, HUMID, flat Corpus Christie, TX . NOT a pleasant place to spend our 61st wedding anniv. (today) but family death/settling estate, brings us away from our wonderful NYS. Many thanks to Kathy Strickland for getting our flights wheelchairs at each airport! A Godsend!An
Dennis,
We had a similar sized group of Common Mergansers on the Chemung River in
Elmira several years ago. When I first saw them in early summer, the young
all appeared to be the same very small size. At the end of summer, when the
young were nearly full grown, the count was the same. The
1) It's common for duckling families to get mixed up or combined. After all,
the parents don't feed the young, the mothers mainly guide them to feeding and
sheltering areas and warn them of danger. Any mother duck can do that, even a
different species. In some species several females seem to
When I reported the Monk Parakeets to ebird a couple of days ago, I suggested their location as a hotspot. The name of the hotspot is West Ridge Plaza (Town of Greece). Ben Cacace, the ebird hotspot person, asked me to pass this information on to other birders who might be visiting the site. Below
Thanks for the report on the Os. They are still using the nest in that they
occasionally add to it and sit on it—and nothing is more important to an
osprey than his nest. His mate rates second. Most unsuccessful pairs leave
on migration a bit early—probably in early August. I'd like to know the
