Date: 4/2/26 3:17 pm From: Shelley Page <shelleypage.imagine...> Subject: [cayugabirds-l] April 2 Thursday Birding Meetup Recap and Next Week Plans
The Thursday Birding Meetup celebrated its first anniversary today through rain and mist at Stewart Park, undaunted by the weather! Eleven of us gathered, peering through the "Ithacation" to see seven species of ducks and mergansers including a nice closer view of a beautiful American wigeon. A raft of over 100 coots swam nearby in a coot-style conga line. Then our attention turned to waves of about 400 tree swallows (with a couple of barn swallows) flying over the lake, a spectacular surprise! Meanwhile, higher up, the ospreys and a young eagle put on quite a show with a successful theft of a fish, the eagle making off with the goods! Ospreys were sitting on their newly enhanced nests at eastern end of the park and along Fall Creek. One cheeky starling was carrying nesting material to the Fall Creek osprey platform, apparently hoping to share the space with their much bigger neighbor! We saw 31 species (thanks for ebird, Tracy McLellan <https://www.facebook.com/groups/423723264332161/user/100000604080233/?__cft__[0]=AZbWjsBav6uj119rh2kOpUUufueKvj4_BOlsFRcwKOHUEENZzLIbDiXKGoGDlqSt06P4qcDOUY_UcqqOQIipHl-pvtU8L9_npgfZ1sOj-Dgoq-FlG_UyRBJJRPrm6nDXw1ybm4Q7wWgM-g-BFIbEsn_t&__tn__=-]K-R>) in total including first of year double-crested cormorants and great blue herons! All in all, a soggy but satisfying anniversary morning, made even more special by Jane Bain's delicious cookies packaged in bags with bird sticker decor. We breakfasted at Kendall afterward, enjoying each other's company as always. Here's to the coming year and more birding adventures together! Consider joining us any Thursday morning--we warmly welcome all birders to bird and then breakfast with us, if their schedule is flexible. Want to join us next week? Gather with us at 7:00 am at Flat Rock where we will explore a bit along Fall Creek and bird over in the Arboretum (we are parking at Flat Rock because the gates into the Arboretum roads are still closed and may still be closed next week). From Ithaca, take Rt. 366 (Dryden Rd) east and turn left on Caldwell Rd just beyond the Cornell Vet School. At the bottom of the hill, turn right on to Forest Home Drive and go .5 mile to the parking area on the left near the creek. Shelley Page *she/they/ki*
313-550-1437 261 Coddington Road Apt. B Ithaca, New York 14850
https://uuma.zoom.us/j/2065380867 "All that you touch you Change. All that you Change changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change." Octavia Butler, The Parable of the Sower
