I stopped at many of the places Anne Marie did, only at different times (except for the Western Grebes at 10:30ish.) What truly amazes me is how much of a "snapshot" each of our visits really is and how much can change by the time the next birder arrives at a spot. What is there when we aren't looking?
After my Twin Oaks stop, I headed south to Aurora (Wells college Boathouse), where Anne Marie had just been but I found 13 HORNED GREBES. It's certainly possible one could have been eared, but they were pretty far out and I saw nothing different enough to consider. There were also about 250 COOTS and a mottled CROW, numerous white blotches, the rest seemed sort of brownish instead of jet black. (Couldn't get a pic before it left.) Across the lake and a little south from Aurora were 1000s of SNOW GEESE. Visible in scope with many coming in, but impossible to see the depth of the long line from that far. After this stop, I decided to go back up north and around to the west side. On a whim, I stopped again at Twin Oaks. This time, no obvious Western Grebes. The geese had scattered, the redheads (etc.) were still thick in the distance (north). They were likely with the redheads, but impossible to pick out. I didn't spend as much time since I had seen them earlier. There were also two BALD EAGLES - one adult, one juvenile - feeding on something on the shore. (not a grebe, the eagles were there earlier too.) At the very north end of the lake, off River road? (I'm not sure where best to see this section, or what you call it), there were lots of various ducks and geese. RINGNECKS, WIGEON, CANVASBACK, GADWALL, to name some. Finally I got to Dean's Cove which seems to be across the lake from Aurora and now those snow geese were back across the lake on the east side! From Dean's cove, I saw 7 REDBREASTED MERGS and 2 COMMON LOONS close in. A fun day on Cayuga lake today, Kim Hartquist Rochester -- 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/ --
