Bird flotillas on Cayuga Lake On Saturday, before the weather changed, I could make out huge flotillas of birds in the middle of Cayuga Lake-- at least a hundred birds in each of the two pods I saw. I couldn't quite make out what kind of birds they were and wonder if someone else identified them. Thanks, Anne Kenney, Lansing Station Road, Lansing
Sent from my phone, with frequent typos. > On Nov 20, 2016, at 12:03 AM, Upstate NY Birding digest > <[email protected]> wrote: > > CAYUGABIRDS-L Digest for Saturday, November 19, 2016. > > 1. Cackling Goose, Stewart Park > 2. Union Springs sign finally corrected! > 3. Montezuma Waterfowl. Snow buntings Larks, longspurs > 4. Montezuma Wildlife Drive Today Nov 19th 2016 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Subject: Cackling Goose, Stewart Park > From: Jay McGowan <[email protected]> > Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2016 10:41:18 -0500 > X-Message-Number: 1 > > Juvenile Cackling Goose currently in Canada flock at east end of Stewart. > > Jay > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Subject: Union Springs sign finally corrected! > From: John and Fritzie Blizzard <[email protected]> > Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2016 10:55:42 -0500 > X-Message-Number: 2 > > Drove by the Mill pond along Rte. 90 a couple days ago & noticed the > labeling of the green heron picture had FINALLY been corrected, changed > from Pileated Woodpecker to the correct ID of Green Heron. Shame on the > scout leader who didn't catch the very obvious mistake many mos. ago > before he awarded the scout the Eagle Scout honor! I felt very > embarrassed for strangers to see the glaring error. And, yes ..... I did > write to the mother of the scout many mos. ago to tell her the ID was > incorrect. No comment from her! > > Fritzie > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Subject: Montezuma Waterfowl. Snow buntings Larks, longspurs > From: "Michael Tetlow" <[email protected]> > Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2016 15:24:48 -0500 > X-Message-Number: 3 > > Yesterday Dominic Sherony and I put a fair amount of time in to > estimating numbers and percentages of waterfowl on the main pool at > Montezuma. Here is the ebird checklist. Particularly noteworthy for me is > the decrease in Ring-necks and huge increase in Lesser Scaup over the last > couple weeks although Ring-necks do tend to hide among the distant cattails > so I'm sure some were missed. > http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32616439. > > Also on Wednesday evening at knox-marcellus I was able to get an > accurate count as 54 Sandhill Cranes flew out to the corn fields and the > remaining 18 all put their heads up. So 72. We'll see if more come in on > this front or if that's it. > > I also had a flock of about 200 Horned larks with at least 2 longspurs > followed by a flock of about 200 Snow Buntings all flying west over East > road around 2:30 pm. Mike Tetlow > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Subject: Montezuma Wildlife Drive Today Nov 19th 2016 > From: David Nicosia <[email protected]> > Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2016 18:40:26 -0500 > X-Message-Number: 4 > > Headed up to Montezuma NWR this morning. My first stop > was Benning Marsh and I got on the WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER, > LESSER YELLOWLEGS and KILLDEER pretty quickly. > These birds were directly across from the parking area. > > Then I drove back around to do the wildlife drive more > carefully. First bird of interest was a late MARSH WREN > calling in the marsh grasses not far from the road across > from Larue's Lagoon. With some phishing the bird came > out and I got some nice looks. > > Then there was the waterfowl on the main pool. > It was spectacular, plain and simple. Large numbers > and lots of variety. Based on Mike Tetlow's numbers > I grossly underestimated the numbers in my ebird > report. But nevertheless it was awesome. All > normal *aythya* species were present (minus TUDU). > There were loads of AMERICAN WIGEON, and GADWALL. > Additional birds were RUDDY DUCKS, MALLARDS, > NORTHERN PINTAIL, NORTHERN SHOVELER, > and 1 BUFFLEHEAD. I tried but failed to refind > the EURASIAN WIGEON seen here recently. > Also present in large numbers were AMERICAN COOTS. > There were also several PIED-BILLED GREBES. After > enjoying the diversity of the waterfowl for a while in 64F > weather, the cold front came through with very strong > winds and a sudden temperature drop. > > So I went back to Benning and I found all > the above shorebirds again plus a GREATER YELLOWLEGS. > I had a nice light phase ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK soar over > Benning as well. > > Additionally, I saw 4 swallows fly over Benning south toward the > main pool. They were pretty high up and flying south with the winds. > The lighting was poor and I did not get any color on these swallows. > I don't think they were TREE SWALLOWS but can't be sure. Could > they have been CAVE SWALLOWS heading south in the strong > north winds?? Not sure on this.... > > On the way out I stopped at Goose "Haven" and saw the CATTLE > EGRETS which posed nice for me. > > My ebird lists are here... > > http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32621595 > > http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32621751 > > Dave Nicosia > > > > --- > > END OF DIGEST > -- 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/ --
