Donna Scott, Linda Orkin, Ann Mitchell and Judy Thoroughman joined me for a local half day of birding. When we met at the Lab at 7:30 it was snowing moderately. After a brief discussion we decided to go part way up the lake as far as Aurora. Before leaving we stopped at the feeders on the N side of the lab. Here we found approximately 100 Redpolls, as well as Am Goldfinch, White-throated Sparrow, Morning Doves, and Black-capped Chickadees. We did not notice any Hoary Redpoll candidates
On our way down to East Shore park we found 2 Red-tailed Hawks along Rt. 13. The ice edge was almost up to the park, and past the red light house on the west side of the lake. That made looking through the sitting Gulls fairly easy, though we only found the 3 expected species, Herring, Ring-billed and Great Black-backed. On the lake water fowl included Am Coot, Common Merganser, Hooded Merganser, Canada Geese, Mallard, Common Goldeneye, We did not find the previously reported Earred Grebe, but the visibility was poor at best. We stopped at Cayuga Vista Dr. and drove down Drake on the way to our way Myers Point. Both were very quiet, with no Shrike obvious at Cayuga Vista. On Drake Rd we added N. Mockingbird and Juncos. The feeders near the N end of Drake proved useless as there were 2 dogs running loose. At Myers we added Greater and Lesser Scaup, and Redhead, and a single American Pipet. We drove slowly up towards Aurora adding a few birds along the way such as N. Cardinal and Blue Jay. The boat house in Aurora was definitely productive. The snow had stopped and we viewed from the upper parking area. We found a group of 5 Horned Grebes almost immediately, along with Black Duck, Common Loon and Bufflehead. The second group of 6 grebes we found directly out from the boat house was initially swimming directly away from shore. When the turned we found an Earred Grebe along with with 5 Horned Grebes. Right after we found the Earred Grebe almost all of the waterfowl took flight heading south. The reason was 3 adult Bald Eagles coming in from the north. The circled around just south of us then headed back north again, a pair first and the 3rd shortly after. It seemed as if it was a pair chasing off an interloper. We had one other interesting find at the boat house as well, and that was a calling Screech Owl, which most of us heard clearly. We did not visually find it, but it certainly did get the local Chickadees, Titmice and Jays fairly worked up. The was also another N Mockingbird in the shrubs near the lot. On the way back south we took Lake Rd past Long Point State Park. On the wires as we were coming back up towards Rt 90 was a male Am Kestral. We stopped and checked the feilds for a bit, but the Kesral was basically all we saw. We also had one unidentified raptor sitting way down the hill along the tree line. I am comfortable saying that it wasn't a Red-tail, but by the time we got scopes on it's location it had vacated. On the way back to the Lab we drove several back roads leading to Lansingville Road with the hope of Horned Larks or Snow Buntings but struck out in that arena. All in all an enjoyable morning of birding. --------------------------------------------- This message was sent using Endymion MailMan. http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/ -- 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/ --
