Hi all, I took a spin around the lake and MNWR in the hope of seeing "Snow" related birds aka Snowy Owl, Snow Buntings and Snow Geese. I succeeded in seeing the latter two but not the first species, although they are abundant all over Syracuse and Rochester area.
I started from Center Road where I had about 20+ Snow Buntings and equal number of Horned Larks. Along the way at various other locations I saw few more flyovers of Horned Larks (may be about another 20). Near Rafferty Road, there were a Kestrel and a Northern Harrier. Lake from Long Point State Park was rough, only birds on the water were Canada Geese and Mallards. >From Aurora Boat Club parking lot I found three grebes far away with >binoculars. By the time I had set up my scope the grebes disappeared. After >scanning several times I finally found them in front of the Boat Club. They >seemed to have moved fast! There also a lone Common Loon in the bay. Otherwise >mostly Canada and Mallards were abundant. Factory pond had about 20 Gadwalls along with scores of Mallards. Union Pond had Mallards, more Gadwalls and several American Widgeons and nothing else. >From the Aurora Bluffs, I could see lots Black Ducks and nothing else. Muckland was devoid of any birds, not even Canada Geese but sometimes later you can find hundreds of them roosting, but I did not wait so long. At Tschache, I saw four Snow Geese flying overhead and a few Canada and lots of Ring-billed Gulls. I think main pool had several hundred Snow Geese but not very sure as I had glimpse of them when I drove on 89. Cayuga Lake State Park had about 40 Swans at south end of the park, hundreds of Coots and few species of ducks. As I was approaching Covert, I saw several skeins Snow Geese heading to the lake and some heading to fields. On the way I saw several Red-tailed Hawks at various locations. But it was nice to get out of the house after two days being at home during the day light hours! Meena Haribal Ithaca NY 14850 42.429007,-76.47111 http://haribal.org/ http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ -- 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/ --
