NYSbirders, Tim Lenz, Jay McGowan, Chris Wiley, and I birded in Monroe and Seneca Counties today. We started at the Summer Tanager stakeout on Colby St. in Spencerport (Monroe Co.), where the bird cooperated early and often. The tanager appears to be an adult female, with an apparently (fresh) completely replaced set of wing feathers including rounded primary coverts edged in olive; it has considerable orange-olive blush, especially to the head and undertail. When it wasn't on or around the feeders, the tanager perched quietly low in the treeline west of the house across the harvested field.
Just a ten minute drive away from the tanager site, three Eurasian Collared-Doves continued just west of the intersection of Curtis Rd. and Rt. 259 in Bartlett Corners perching in trees in two front yards. Only a few waterbirds (including Red-necked Grebe, Red-throated Loon) were moving on Lake Ontario at Hamlin Beach State Park mid-morning, so we headed east to the Cayuga Lake Basin. Montezuma NWR and surrounding marshes and impoundments were largely iced over, and the majority of waterfowl have relocated to the northwest corner of Cayuga Lake. We encountered many thousands of Canada Geese, Snow Geese, Tundra Swans, and ducks from Cayuga Lake State Park south to Deans Cove; among them we found 4 Cackling Geese and I saw an adult Ross's Goose briefly before the Snow Geese flew again. Perhaps the rarest wildfowl of the day was a presumed Snow x Canada Goose that Tim picked out south of Cayuga Lake State Park with the Canada Goose flocks; like several other birds of this hybrid combination that I've seen in the past few years, this bird had a body and wings that looked like a combination of Canada and dark morph Snow Goose, and a white head blending into a dark neck; the bill was shaped like a thin Snow Goose bill and was dark gray in coloration. A very late Killdeer was at Deans Cove as well. Photos of the Summer Tanager and the presumed Snow x Canada Goose hybrid are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonxie88/ Cheers, Tom -- Thomas Brodie Johnson Ithaca, NY [email protected] mobile: 717.991.5727 -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
