The wonderful thing about birding in early January is that almost every bird is a New Year Bird. Susan Danskin and I spent the day yesterday looking for old friends and anyone new. And we ended the day with 74 and 75 birds for the year, respectively. (Susan missed Long-eared Owl and I missed Barred Owl last night in the rain.)
Our first stop of any interest was Myers where we found a pair of White-winged Scoters from the marina and a lone Horned Grebe off the spit. We then headed out Lansingville Rd, crossed over to Indian Field Rd where we finally encountered our Snowy Owl SE of Poplar Ridge Rd in the same field as reported by others. Between there and Aurora we passed several flocks of Snow Buntings (total over 1,000) and Horned Larks (several dozen) but, to our disappointment, no Longspurs. At the bottom of Popular Ridge Rd, just before Rt 90, we ran across a feeding flock of Juncos, Tree Sparrows, a couple of Bluebirds, and a singe Yellow-rumped Warbler. Off the boathouse in Aurora we found four Horned Grebes (no Eared). American Wigeon on Mill Pond in Union Springs was new for us. As were Trumpeter Swans (green wing tags) on the ice along the Seneca River just north of Mud Lock. We scanned for Snowy Owls from the Potato Building but did not see what others later found from there. However, we did observe a Bald Eagle, a couple of Northern Harriers and a light phase Rough-legged Hawk working the fields to the south. >From Parker Road in the Village of Canoga we noted several Mute Swans out on >the ice. We searched for Snowy owl along Seybolt and Marin Roads and again >came up short. At that point is was getting late, so we decided to go back up, >around, and down the east side of the lake, stopping at Lake Road for the >Short-eared Owl show. Bob & Jo Horn pulled up behind us, and we spent the next >half hour watching four owls search for their evening meal. We observed one >owl grab a mouse/vole and proceed to flaunt it to the other owls until finally >settling down in the vineyard to consume it. 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/ --
