Date: 3/2/23 7:47 pm From: Deb Grantham <dgg3...> Subject: [cayugabirds-l] snow geese and black birds and more
Yesterday afternoon, I watched as clouds and clouds of snow geese descended across Route 79, going from north to south, and appeared to land in ag fields. I think there were thousands, but there was no way to count but the process went on for 10 minutes or more. I was watching from Sheffield Road, Ithaca/Enfield town line. I drove around but never could find the fields they may have landed in.
This morning, I watched a stream of black birds cross my property from the east and cross Sheffield Road to land across the street in the horse farm there. There were dozens in any cross section you might cut through the stream and it went on for over 5 minutes. I clearly saw a good proportion of grackles, could see their tails. I saw some smaller, compact birds that could have been cowbirds. But other than the grackle tails, I couldn't see anything well enough to identify species.
One interesting point was that a home fuel oil truck drove past and when it went under the stream of birds, they were clearly buffeted by the turbulence. They were about 15 or 20 feet above the truck.
And I saw 7 bluebirds in my yard today.
Deb
Deborah G. Grantham
Director, Northeastern Integrated Pest Management Center
Cornell Institute for Resource Information Sciences
Faculty Fellow, Cornell Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future Cornell University
