Onieda Lake

I am blessed to live within a stone's throw of Onieda Lake, the largest lake wholly within the borders of New York State. Yesterday being a beautiful day of partial clouds and temperatures hovering around 70 degrees all day, I spent most of the morning sitting in my backyard watching birds at my feeder and the neighboring woods. After lunch, I decided to see what I could see at Onieda Shores County Park and a fishing access where Interstate 81 crosses the western end of the lake.

At Onieda Shores I found several Caspian Terns, along with Black Ducks, both of which were firsts in the state for me.



Near the Arrowhead Shelter, there were several Ruby Meadowhawks around a stagnant pond. Very inquisitive, I had several come and land on my shirt as I walked around.



A Pearl Crescent landed at my feet, so I felt obliged to take its portrait.



Over at the fishing area, a mother Mallard was napping with some of her offspring.



An Eastern Pondhawk feasting on an unfortunate damselfly.



Spotted Sandpipers were feeding along the shore.



Despite the 10-15 mile per hour wind, I managed a decent shot of an Eastern Forktail (female).



Overall, a gorgeous day.

Niagara Falls

Living in Central New York, it is pretty well obligatory to make a pilgrimage to Niagara Falls to see the western four Great Lakes making there way down the 167' drop toward Lake Ontario. So, this past Saturday, off we went.

Well-known as a gull hotspot in the winter, in the summer, Niagara hosts an enormous number of Ring-billed Gulls. They were the only type of gull I saw all day.



Amidst all the gulls, I was able to spy a Spotted Sandpiper feeding along the rocks in the Niagara River.



Having the batteries give out in my camera, and the spares back at the car, I had to hike back to get them. On my return, I came across a Song Sparrow kind enough to pose as reward for my troubles.



He was also singing, as his name would imply.



There were Canada Geese as well.

Hamlin Marsh

To celebrate the AOU giving me a new lifer this weekend....

(The 52nd Supplement to the check-List of North American Birds is out, they decided to split Snowy Plover from Kentish Plover. I am fortunate to have seen both, so +1 for me!)

...I decided to spend a little bit at Hamlin Marsh. Birds were scarce, but I did see a few winged creatures that I could grab in my viewfinder.

Judging by the conditions of the wings, this Whiteface has had a long and hard life....


The always photogenic Blue Dasher



A female Fragile Forktail resting on some European Frogbit. (The leaves are about the size of a half-dollar.)


The male Fragile Forktail.


Black-eyed Susan.

Pratt's Falls County Park

A Sunny day with no classes just begs for some exploration...so my lovely wife and I headed out to see Pratt's Falls County Park.



We didn't see any personal injury lawyers, though we saw signs of them....



We heard several birds, but the full summer vegetation made seeing them a real challenge. We did find a nice little pond with some ode activity.

Onieda Shores County Park

Well, I have managed to make birding part of my "homework" for my statistics class this summer. (It's all in how you write the project proposal!) So, I headed out this morning for a few hours to Onieda Shores County Park to see what was hopping.

A couple of Great-crested Flycatchers were out.



A fledgling Blue Jay was quite photogenic (despite his parent's loud cries).



After walking a trail, that included a short slog through calf-deep water, I found a Song Sparrow singing. (Who would have thought?)



An Eastern Wood-Pewee was hawking from a fire hydrant and its sign. (A subtle reminder that they get a fair bit of snow around here--the sign sits up higher than the hydrant so you can find it in a drift, should the need arise.)



After the Pewee, I sat for a minute and listened to the frogs croaking and examined my mucked shoes.



Then back to the car and home for lunch. (You'd be making a face too, if you're sandals were full of muck and you were covered with mosquito bites!)