Hi all, As many of you know, for several years I have continued the longstanding tradition of listing the species of birds found in the Cayuga Lake Basin during the calendar year in the order that they have been found. The list, thanks to Paul Anderson, is on the Cayuga Bird Club website here:
http://www.cayugabirdclub.org/Resources/cayuga-lake-basin-first-records We are barely a quarter into the year and the list stands at 152, which is around half the species typically found in a whole year. We have yet to see the push of birds from Latin America - most shorebirds and neotropical songbirds. Maybe this is a good time for a quick review. Please take a look at the list. Have I missed any species? Are there species which were found earlier? Are there observers in a finding party whom I've omitted? Are there additional independent finders of a species on the same day? Is a location poorly or incorrectly described (I try to include a road and township but not anyone's personal address)? Did I screw up other ways? There are a few reports which I did not include (yet): Chipping Sparrow was reported earlier, but I only included the first report I saw which was a visual ID, because their song is similar to Dark-eyed Junco which has been singing in our area for awhile. Cattle Egret was mentioned secondhand in a summary of rarities at Montezuma. It's so unexpected that there's only one April eBird record for Seneca County (also lacking details) and one for May, with none for January, February or March. Without details or an observer to ask, I can't say whether it was distinguished from Great Egret which is expected to show up at this time. Eastern Wood-Pewee was reported from "near the lake" up to a mile from Cornell's north campus, which could be Cayuga or Beebe Lake. It is a month before this species is expected back, and neotropical migrants tend not to suddenly appear that early. The ID was by sound only, and European Starlings, which are singing now, are known to include mimicry. I'd want a visual confirmation for this ID. Henslow's Sparrow was reported from an unmowed field in northwestern Tompkins County. This is quite a rarity in this part of New York State in the past several decades, although one or more sang from a hayfield at the south edge of the Town of Ithaca for much of last summer. The habitat in this report sounded plausible. The time of day (dusk) that it was heard was typical. The date was the same that many were first reported heard in their usual Midwest range. But it was an anonymous eBird report from private land not close to a road. There was only the assurance from someone whose experience is unknown that the sound was like recordings of the species, insect-like with long pauses. I was hoping that to confirm this rarity someone from eBird would get permission to go to the site, listen, record if possible, and verify the ID, even if the landowner does not want to be known or give permission to any other birders to enter. It would be good to know if this rare and declining species is coming back to our area. By the way, the Cayuga Lake Basin was defined in a 1925 botany textbook by Wiegand and Eames. In the south its boundary is straightforward: if the land drains directly to Cayuga Lake, it's in the Basin. In the north, the Basin gets complicated. Land which drains to Seneca Lake first before entering the Seneca River and Cayuga Lake out. But land which drains north or south into the Erie Canal, Clyde River, or Seneca River between a couple of somewhat arbitrary points to the east and west is in the Basin. Land which drains north to Lake Ontario instead of the Seneca River is out. The result is that the Montezuma Wetlands Complex, including Howland Island, is in. W&E's map shows several creeks and ponds that help define the basin. The map used to be posted somewhere, and there's a modern version in the book Birding in the Cayuga Lake Basin. Anyway, you're looking for indoor amusement on a rainy evening, have a look at the list of what's been found so far. It's impressive. --Dave Nutter -- 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/ --
