On Sunday morning, April 22ed 13 people joined me for a walk in the park. The sunshine was awesome, but there was a light breeze at the start making it quite chilly. There was a nice group of male and female Ruddy Ducks right offshore for great viewing. Such beautiful ducks. The majority of waterfowl out on the water were Scaup and Bufflehead. The Bufflehead were scattered all over, many of the males doing their courtship dances. From here we also observed Common Mergansers, a Kingfisher flyby, and a Fish Crow sounding its nasal call, flying up into a nearby tree. There was a Mallard pair along the shore and a Killdeer called and walked along the shoreline. We observed a couple Caspian Terns flying around and going back towards the lighthouse. A Phoebe made an appearance, and a couple Song Sparrows also walked along the shore at one point. Out towards the end of the light house jetty were Double-creasted Cormorants and a Great Black-backed Gull. A single Eastern Bluebird flew up onto the top of one of the swings nearby. From the walk around the Swan Pen, we saw Hooded Merganser females out on the inlet. Suan Yong was leading an SFO group and had found a Red-throated Loon out on the lake and he helped us locate it. This bird showed a lot of white, so did not appear to be in breeding plumage yet. As we walked along the inlet a Sandpiper was spotted. Sure enough the bobbing bird was a Spotted Sandpiper. A pair of Wood Ducks flew in and across the water from us but landed behind grasses, and we could not find them again. We spotted both Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets. As we walked along the western most trail in Renwick, along the water, a beautiful pair of Hooded Mergansers flew out towards the lake. There was a male and two female Hooded Mergansers out on the water. Someone spotted a Green Heron on a fallen log at the waters edge, quite close to us. It tolerated us for awhile, so everyone could see it and then flew off. We heard and saw a Tufted Titmouse. We heard Northern Cardinal and Northern Flicker, but otherwise it was quite quiet. We decided to drive over to the golf course to check on the nesting Great-horned Owl. About six of us drove over and were surprised to see a large chick sitting right up in the nest. At first we did not see the female, until she moved her head and we saw the ear tufts. She blended right in with the tree trunk. As we watched, we spotted another chick. The chicks were moving around a lot and looking this way and that, a lot of fun to see. We also had two Mockingbirds flying around some bushes out on the golf course. Four of us walked the road around towards Jetty Woods to see if we could get another angle on the Owl nest. Indeed we did find a good spot to observe the owl nest from. Three Tree Swallows flying around, vocalizing and chasing each other. Susan Soboroff and I continued out to the end of the Jetty Wood path in hopes of seeing some early warblers. We did not find warblers but saw a couple Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and a Cormorant flew over carrying nesting material. We found a Horned Grebe out on the lake, the feathered yellow horns were beautiful in the sunshine. Thanks to all who joined me for the morning.
Good birding, Gladys -- 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/ --
