Date: 11/11/26 8:01 pm From: Larry Alden via hmbirds <overlook...> Subject: [hmbirds] Tomhannock Reservoir - Veterans Day 11-11-2026
I did my annual Veterans Day circumnavigation of the Tomhannock Reservoir,
doing the customary counterclockwise route with two traditional departures
out from the western shore of the reservoir for the sole purpose of padding
our list. This year I was again accompanied by Jackie Bogardus and Steve
Chorvas.
This year’s trip was a vast improvement on last year’s trip, when snow lay
on the ground. We had mostly sunny weather with a slight breeze and a high
temperature of 56°. The water level at the reservoir was lower than normal.
We found a total of 60 species, which is well above the average of the last
ten years (50.0).
I have species records for 29 of the last 30 years (trip totals for all of
them) and I know I’ve done this count for at least five years before that.
We had no new species this year, so the cumulative list remains at 109
species, with an additional 3 species from the years before I kept good
records.
There were low numbers of waterfowl on the reservoir, which seems to be the
more common outcome these days compared to 20 years ago. I suspect that
warmer autumns are resulting in waterfowl remaining to the north until cold
weather and ice drive them to the south. We totaled just 10 species of
waterfowl; oddly enough, these were the exact same species as we observed
last year and included no unusual species. We once again missed Ruddy Ducks.
One nice surprise was a Pied-billed Grebe seen near the pump station on Ford
Road. We saw at least seven individual shorebirds on the mud flats on the
northeast corner of the water cut off by the causeway (Route 7) on the south
end of the reservoir, but they were too far off to put a name to them other
than to say that they did not appear to be Killdeers.
Our two departures from the reservoir proper were: 1) Nortonville Road to
Sherman Road to Croll Road, and, 2) Tomhannock Road to
Tomhannock-Johnsonville Road to Sproat Road to Requate Road to Brundige Road
and back to the reservoir by the Otter Creek inlet. These two diversions
resulted in the addition of a whopping 15 species (each marked with an
asterisk [*] below) to our list. We had our only Ring-necked Duck of the day
on Herrington Pond (on Tomhannock-Johnsonville Rd.)
Our most interesting sighting on these departures was an aerial skirmish
between a raven, immature Bald Eagle, and two crows on Sproat Road. They
were joined and continued in several different permutations by a second
immature Bald Eagle and a Golden Eagle, providing a good opportunity to
observe the differences in the eagle species in flight.
Before we finished the trip at 3:40, we were back at the fisherman’s parking
area on the east end of the Route 7 causeway where we observed an adult Bald
Eagle splash into the water near the island that houses the cormorant/heron
rookery. We watched as it swam to the island and moved to the back side, out
of sight. We couldn’t see what it had caught but when we saw clumps of
feathers floating to the west, we figured they must have been from a very
unfortunate duck.
Going by my cumulative list, our best birds were: Turkey Vulture (4th
occurrence), Golden Eagle (2nd), Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (9th – we saw five
individuals), Purple Finch (3rd), Common Grackle (9th), and Yellow-rumped
Warbler (3rd). Anticipated-but-missed species were: Ruddy Duck (found 26 of
29 years) and Common Loon (26 of 29 years).
Here’s our list of 60 species:
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
American Black Duck
American Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck*
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Wild Turkey
Pied-billed Grebe
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove*
Shorebird sp.
Ring-billed Gull
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Golden Eagle*
Northern Harrier*
Cooper’s Hawk*
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker*
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)*
Pileated Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Carolina Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
House Sparrow*
House Finch
Purple Finch
American Goldfinch
Fox Sparrow*
American Tree Sparrow*
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)
White-throated Sparrow*
Song Sparrow*
Red-winged Blackbird*
Brown-headed Cowbird*
Common Grackle*
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Totals for the past 25 Veterans Day counts are as follows:
