This bird touched so many lives. Especially Nancy and I we thought an update would be a good idea. The bird was first noticed on Sunday March 4th. Nancy was doing Feeder Watch counts when she saw it on the deck. She grabbed her camera and snapped a few pictures. She texted me immediately. I came up with a few ideas which she knew were not right. I then told her to post it on The Labs Facebook page someone would figure it out. I went back to work and forgot about it. When I got home there was the text about the id and the excitement began. A man by the name of Stephen Meyer had the correct id immediately. I later e-mailed the picture to a few people I knew and trusted who also confirmed it. We then decided to keep it low key and just let people come by appointment. Well that didn’t last long someone posted it to NY Birders Facebook page and the fun began. Sunday night we answered phone and emails to midnight me in the Finger Lakes and Nancy in Locust Grove. Once the flood gates opened we started to realize how special the bird was. Only the second sighting in NYS. The other being in the Catskills on Dec, 22,2011 according to e-bird records. Monday morning people started to arrive. We had a total of 150 people sign in but on Weds. we both had to go back to work and also on Thurs. So we feel it was much higher. We had visitors from Long Island, NYC,Maryland, Pa., NJ, NC, Ontario Canada, many towns in Central NY, Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton. We had one fellow who signed in Wyckoff NJ via Scotland. The story was shown on Channel 7, Watertown with interviews with Kevin McGowan and Nancy. The story was covered by the local newspapers.. The story is running on a big screen TV in the lobby of Nancy’s school. Many generous people donated money for seed. Some of that money will be used to help buy seed for a program Nancy does at her school for disabled children which includes feeding and gardening for birds and Project Feeder Watch. The rest will be donated to a cause to be decided. Rosy mainly ate mixed seed from the birdbath made into a feeder. He was not seen on the Niger feeder while we were home. The farthest we saw him fly was the sumac across the road. We never saw him in the Blue Spruce which a few people asked about. We saw some photos where the bird was eating sugar maple buds. The only day he stayed at the feeder after 3:30 was the day before he moved on. On Weds. night he was there until 4:30pm which had us a little concerned. Thursday morning March 8th he was last seen at 9 am. One of the many things that came out of this is the appreciation we felt from everyone who came. On Tuesday it was like a block party with lots of scopes, camera equipment and many happy birders. Untold money was pumped into the economy of a very rural part of the state. When I checked bird sightings for Lewis county on e-bird I was impressed with the number of bird species people saw and reported. On Sunday morning Nancy and I got Golden Eagle at the Sugar River bridge what a wonderful way to end an amazing week. Nancy and Janet --
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/ --
