Today, I led the Buffalo Ornithological Society Lake Ontario Plain field trip to eastern Niagara and western Orleans Counties. This trip hits several spots near Lake Ontario, many along rural roads. The day was mostly sunny but a northeast breeze off of Lake Ontario kept us quite cool when we were anywhere near the lake. Twenty-one attendees tallied at least 60 species. Highlights were four SANDHILL CRANES, an immature male KING EIDER, and a great hawk flight.
One of our first stops was at our usual Meadowlark spot, on Hosmer Road, just south of Townline Road. This was where Rachel Wilson found Sandhill Cranes and a Snowy Owl on Thursday. These birds were not where Rachel had found them on the west side of Hosmer Road but Garner Light found four SANDHILL CRANES in a field on the east side of the road. What a great start to the trip! There were also 25 TUNDRA SWANS, 20 GREEN-WINGED TEAL, and a handful of NORTHERN PINTAIL here. And yes, many saw their first EASTERN MEADOWLARK of the season when Betsy found two here. Just getting to the lake at Hartland and Lower Lake Roads, we spotted some EASTERN BLUEBIRDS. While everyone was trying to see them, hawks were spotted, including NORTHERN HARRIER, AMERICAN KESTREL (one of over a dozen on the day), a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK seen only by Joe Mitchell, and a kettle of TURKEY VULTURES. By the time we finally made it to Barker Bicentennial Park, it was well after 9:00 and it seemed like there were not a lot of birds flying over the lake. Closer scrutiny, however, revealed a modest flight of RED-THROATED LOONS, extremely distant. On the water were 135 RED-NECKED GREBES, a handful of HORNED GREBES, and a male SURF SCOTER. Unfortunately, I only got a few people on the scoter before we lost it after it dove. It was probably over ten minutes later, when trying to refind the scoter, I came across two WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, and another duck with orange on its bill. I was hopeful it was the scoter again but it didn't look right. It was far out but eventually it lifted its head up higher and I had a good view of an immature male KING EIDER! With some effort, everyone on the trip who wanted to was able to get a look at this bird. The field trip was declared a success already but only being 10:00, we had a lot more time to look around. Just as we were about to leave the park, a MERLIN flew by, spotted by Mitch or Garner Light. At Lower Lake Road and Burgess Roads, the large puddle on the north side of the road had only geese but one of them was a CACKLING GOOSE, found by the person with 79 years of birding experience, Gerry Rising. There have been so few geese lately, due to their impressively early migration this year, that I thought we would not get this species. We actually wound up getting two more on Johnson Creek Road near Seaman Road. From Lower Lake Road, it was impossible not to notice the impressive hawk flight that was developing. We moved to a safer place on Burgess Road, where we watched in awe as hundreds of TURKEY VULTURES, with RED-TAILED HAWKS, RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS, NORTHERN HARRIERS, COOPER'S HAWKS, and AMERICAN KESTRELS glided by. After a while, with the coffee that many of us had earlier, urging us on, we made our way to the restroom at Golden Hill State Park. Here we had great views of gorgeous breeding plumaged RED-NECKED GREBES, much closer than the birds seen earlier in the morning. A BONAPARTE'S GULL here was one of two on the day. Behind schedule, at 12:30, we finally made it inland to Johnson Creek Road and Townline Road, affectionately known as "my favorite field". Here we looked over the impressive puddle but were unimpressed by the variety of birds - only Ring-billed Gulls plus a lone Bonaparte's Gull and a pair of NORTHERN PINTAIL in flight. Later in the afternoon, viewing this field from Townline Road, found many more Pintail, several GREEN-WINGED TEAL, and two AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS. On Countyline Road, a NORTHERN PINTAIL and two AMERICAN WIGEON were at the flooded pond near Yates Center Road. Back up near the lake, we found that the northeast breeze had freshened but there were still lots of TURKEY VULTURES on the move, as well as a group of 20 or so in a field, waiting their turn at some delicious dead thing. We also started seeing several AMERICAN KESTRELS and watched a male land on a pole with its mouse meal, only to have it stolen by an aggressive female. We tried for Rough-legged Hawk at a grassy field but had to settle for a few NORTHERN HARRIERS and RED-TAILED HAWKS. Back inland to our last official stop at the Lyndonville pond, the group found a pair of HOODED MERGANSERS, a PIED-BILLED GREBE, and a BLUE-WINGED TEAL. Other birds of note seen today were WOOD DUCK, RING-NECKED DUCK, COMMON LOON, GREAT BLUE HERON, BALD EAGLE, SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS, and a PILEATED WOODPECKER. It was a great birding day and an excellent and fun group. Good birding! Willie ------------------ Willie D'Anna Betsy Potter Wilson, NY dannapotterATroadrunner.com Betsy's website: http://www.betsypottersart.com/ Willie's photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/107683885@N07/ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
