Date: 2/22/21 2:39 pm From: Elaina M. McCartney <elaina.mccartney...> Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Large Crow flight
Approximately 5:20 pm today I noticed a steady flight of Crows from my vantage just north of Hog Hole, heading approximately toward Cayuga Heights/Cornell Campus, moving in the approximately the opposite direction of the large morning flight of 2/17. I don’t know the extent of today’s flight, I assume it had been going on for a while before I looked up and noticed—pretty gray out there. I don’t have complete numbers, but did a quick count of maybe 100+ birds in less than a minute. Looked like an evening “return” flight.
Elaina
From: <bounce-125394393-3494066...> on behalf of Elaina McCartney <elaina.mccartney...>
Reply-To: Elaina McCartney <elaina.mccartney...>
Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2021 at 9:27 AM
To: CAYUGABIRDS-L <CAYUGABIRDS-L...>
Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Large Crow flight
Shortly before sunrise this morning I noticed out the window a stream (actually a river) of Crows flying north following the west shore of Cayuga Lake. To attempt to count them I recorded a 20 sec video, and was able to count 270 by examining it slowly. The steady flight, which seemed to originate somewhere southish of Hog Hole, lasted at least 15 minutes at a rate of approximately 800 per minute. I don’t know how long it had been going on when I first noticed it, but there were upwards of 12,000 individuals while I watched them pass at a steady rate. Some stragglers in groups of 8-10 followed up until about 7 am.
During the GBBC I observed three immature Bald Eagles simultaneously from my window, making passes over a large raft of aythya and Canada Geese, just north of Hog Hole. It was the first time I’d seen more than two at a time. Yesterday I observed a mature Bald Eagle land in a nearby tree during a brief snow flurry. Last fall a neighbor had limbs removed from a large, dying red oak tree for safety, and constructed an osprey platform on what’s left of the tree. Hoping there will be some nesting interest.
