With our group suffering various cases of hydrophobia, sleeping-in,
and hangovers, Tim Lenz and I were the only ones willing and able for
a day of birding. And what a wonderful day it ended up being! The
rain mostly kept away, the skies were full of geese and swans,
flooded fields everywhere were teaming with ducks, blackbird and
grackle song filled the air, and there were good numbers of raptors
attracted to all the commotion.
We started off by heading up to Chimney Bluffs State Park (Lake
Ontario) to look for the reported Western Grebe. The windy conditions
meant that it wasn't easy scanning the choppy water, but there were
plenty of birds present to keep things interesting. Large numbers of
LONG-TAILED DUCKS, COMMON GOLDENEYE and RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS,
three WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, and around 30 RED-NECKED GREBES made for
entertaining searching. After about 40min, we located the WESTERN
GREBE swimming just offshore from the parking lot. The distance and
wind precluded fantastic photos, though some grainy, out-of-focus
ones were taken.
Sodus Bay had 20+ MUTE SWAN, 5 TRUMPETER SWANS, and about 30 HOODED
MERGANSERS.
We stopped along Road 414 back down to Clyde where the first
thousands of SNOW GEESE and hundreds of TUNDRA SWANS of the day were
flying over. We managed to pick out one ROSS'S GOOSE from the crowd,
as well as a very pale-backed CACKLING GOOSE in a field with some
Canadas.
Down in Montezuma, VanDyne Spoor Rd contained enormous quantities of
NORTHERN PINTAIL, one SANDHILL CRANE, one NORTHERN SHRIKE, one very
brown juvenile PEREGRINE FALCON (tantalizingly gyr falon-esque), at
least six NORTHERN HARRIERS (many of which persistently mobbed the
aforementioned falcon), and a couple of pale ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS.
Quite the show!
The mucklands lacked the enormous goose-flocks seen there during the
past week, but still harbored a couple of thousand snow geese. In the
pool on the eastern end of the mucklands (visible from the potato
building), were good numbers of wigeon and other dabblers, including
our first drake EURASIAN WIGEON of the day. Also here, was a second
PEREGRINE FALCON (an adult), which posed on a sign 10 feet from the
car for a photo.
The main pool at Montezuma had over a thousand CANVASBACK (with a
smattering of other Aethya mixed in), hundreds of TUNDRA SWANS,
hundreds of RING-NECKED DUCK, and 30 NORTHERN SHOVELLERS.
There continue to be huge rafts of Aethya ducks off Cayuga State Park
at the northern end of the lake, although they were well offshore.
These consisted of a fairly even mixture of REDHEAD, SCAUP, RING-
NECKED DUCK, CANVASBACK and AMERICAN WIGEON, with a drake EURASIAN
WIGEON mixed in. Here, we also saw another ROSS'S GOOSE flying
overhead with the streams of Snow Geese.
We finished off the day with a single COMMON LOON off Sheldrake Point.
I'm sure I'm forgetting many other things right now - there were
birds absolutely everywhere today! I hope others got a chance to get
out and see the spectacle.
Happy birding,
Chris Wiley,
Ithaca NY
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