decay@cbnewsj.att.com (dean.kaflowitz) (06/12/91)
Hello. I am a neophyte birder, having been introduced to this wonderful pastime by my girlfriend. We took a trip to Ithaca NY last weekend to fish Lake Cayuga (I had a charter for Sunday) and bird-watch in Sapsucker Woods. If you can get to Sapsucker Woods, I highly recommend that you do. Here are some ofthe birds we saw: A Barred Owl (at 8:00 in the morning) being chased by crows. After he landed I got three pictures of him, two of them being fairly good. A Pileated Woodpecker. I got three or four shots of him but only one was good. I'm stillnot much of a photographer. A Red-Bellied Woodpecker. A Great Blue Heron. A sapsucker, but we couldn't tell which one. We think it was the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, but my photo stunk. A Cardinal and it's mate. American Goldfinch. House Finch. Black and White Warbler. Brown Creeper. I am proud of that one because it was my sighting and not easy to see in the dim light of a shadowy wood. Blue-Winged Warbler. This one I have a question about. We identified it as a Blue-Winged Warbler from the field guide, and when we got back to the Lyman K. Stuart Observatory we asked the ornithologist there about it and he said it was probably the Blue-Winged Warbler, but the mask was much larger than the mask pictured in the field guide. The field guide (Audobon) shows a narrow mask, but I have some good pictures of the bird right here and the mask is very wide. Did we get our ID right or not? Is there a period in the bird's life when it's mask is wider? Thanks. I am now a confirmed bird-watcher. Our next trips are planned for the Great Swamp and we want to get to Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania for the fall migration of raptors. We're also going to be spending a lot of time at Sandy Hook. Dean Kaflowitz But when Quin the Eskimo gets here All the pigeons gonna run to him