John Confer and I spent the day yesterday looking for birds around the lake. We began by walking the old RR bed between Powell Rd and the village of Interlaken, ostensibly to look for the Towhee reported by Marty over the weekend. No Towhee, but we did encounter a large number of American Tree Sparrows (at least 30) in several flocks, 4 Song Sparrows, and a Field Sparrow. There were several Downy and a couple of Red-bellied Woodpeckers, but most surprising were 4 Northern Flickers which we imagined were the beginning of a spring push north. When we got back to the car (on Powell Rd) we were greeted by a sheriff's note asking that we call him. It turned out that there was a neighbor who was concerned about our activity - and the RR bed may well be posted. (It is not clear from the posted sign whether it is the path itself, or the adjoining fields that are off limits.)
At Dean's Cove we had the resident Lesser Black-backed Gull, struggling to land a rather large mudpuppy. We spent quite a while looking for the Snowy Owl at the chiropractic college and the roads around the airport - to no avail. And there were no new pellets on the bleachers where the owl had been seen earlier. From Mud Lock and Towpath Road (village of Cayuga) we scoped the distant flocks of Canada geese, swans, and ducks on the water and remaining ice. The number of birds was considerably less than last weekend. Along with the mallards and Black Ducks, we found a few Northern Pintails, Buffleheads, and Goldeneye, but no Wigeon (American or Eurasian). We drove in the road to Twin Oaks campground around 2 PM and were greeted by a HUGE flock of milling Aythya ducks. We estimated the entire flock (often split into several rafts) contained about 15,000 birds, with some 2,000 Canvasbacks, 1,000 Scaup (Greater predominated) and 12,000 Redheads. AND one lone Ring-necked Duck. During the 45 minutes that we were there we did NOT see any grebes. The Western Grebes that Jay and Tom found there later could have been there all the time (though we had clear views of the area where they found them) – or they may have flown in after we left. So, in thinking about the possibility of three WESGRE on the lake . . . . . . . Our last stop was the Aurora Boathouse where we ran into Jay and Tom and told them about the Aythya flock at Twin Oaks. The water was nearly calm, and we eventually picked out 11 actively diving Horned Grebes. No Eared Grebe. Two small flocks of Goldeneye; a few Buffleheads. And a large, distant raft of Snow Geese. Bob McGuire -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
