The CBC trip around Cayuga Lake on Sunday, 16 April had good luck with weather and birds and a very congenial group of 12 people sharing laughs and great views. We went up the east side of the lake, around the main auto tour route, to Tschache Pool with lots of waterfowl and 3 ad Bald Eagles. After lunch at the Nice&Easy, renamed EasyGo, we went to Helmer Marsh and then to the wetland complex. Sandy, Bill, and Lisa Pudulka reported several species of water birds at Puddlers, including Great Egret. The group didn't have time to get there. We saw a very pleasing 86 species by observers in my car plus 5 species observed by splinter groups before/after we got together, including:
Greater Scaup; 20 m away on wooden piling at Mud Lock with broken wing
Wood Duck; pair flying/landing in nearby, dead, elm trees with large
cavities near eagle nest at Mud Lock.
Western Grebe; THE pair seen from road/hillside near
Harris Park
Bald Eagle; with two feathered young at Mud Lock and two
Virginia Rail; the only bird that responded to an audio of the American
Bittern near DEC headquarters on Morgan Rd.
Sandhill Crane; heard southwest of DEC headquarters, from Morgan Rd. in
direction of Carncross Rd, but probably not that far away.
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher;eye level along raised trail at Helmer Marsh.
~15 Rusty Blackbird; Helmer Marsh, sat in trees long enough to observe
in scope!
Horned Lark; doing sky dance along Center Rd (east at
King Ferry Winery) and also lots of Savannah singing, both nearer
eastern end of road approaching 34B.
Pine Warbler; singing at the Cornell Plantations at start of trip (7:00
AM) at parking lot near old Dairy Bar.
Chipping Sparrow; Helmer Marsh, for a nice total of 8 Emberizidea (if
you count the Fox Sparrow as I got
out of the car at home)
Savannah Sparrow; large numbers at every likely habitat
that we stopped at.
Eastern Meadowlark; in-your-face views on Lake Rd at south end near Rt 79.
We missed on Tundra Swan and left wondering if there are reliable
locations for them now that water level is dropping.
Cheers,
John Confer
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