As I was driving along the west side of Cayuga lake last week, I could see what looked like a huge snow squall off in the distance. But it wasn't cold enough to be snowing. As I went further south, it became obvious that it was an enormous raft of Snow Geese covering about a 1/2 mile stretch of sky from the water level up to 150-200 feet- I'd estimate 2000-3000+ birds. Unfortunately by the time I got to a clearing in the trees where I could get a shot, they had all set down on the water in a long ribbon of white. What an amazing sight that was!!
The male American Wigeon has a pretty green patch on his head which really stands out when the sun is shining on it. He has a lovely light blue beak with black tip. He was swimming with his mate among hundreds of Mallards at Stewart Park in Ithaca.
Here is the female American Wigeon. She does not have the green coloring on her head and her back feathers are darker than the male. She does have the same light blue bill with black tip as the male.
I have been hearing about sightings of large flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds. This morning we had our 1st one arrive. He hung around most of the day calling in the treetops for others to join him.
This is the White-breasted Nuthatch that the Tufted Titmouse was following around competing for who could find the most bugs. In this shot he paused from bug hunting to look around.
This Tufted Titmouse was following a White-breasted Nuthatch around through large trees in Treman Marine Park, Ithaca, NY. They seemed to be competing for who could find the available bugs first. In this shot, the Tufted Titmouse got her prize. Notice the little bug at the tip of her beak. I got a real workout trying to follow these birds as they scrambled around the trunks of trees.
Our regular Downy Woodpecker visitors keep getting more tame all the time. This guy lets me get within 3 feet of him when I am replenishing suet before he will fly to the nearby crabapple tree.
This rehabilitated Aplomado Falcon was really locked onto me as I took her photo from my seat in the front row of the audience (The Raptor Project presentation).
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