This post has little use as it is out of date but I felt obliged to share some winter bird excitement with you all.
 
Three weeks ago friday on my way home from a meeting in Utica, I sucessfully located a juvenile SNOWY OWL on peterboro road in Madison County thanks to one of Matt Youngs postings previous to that.  The bird was on the ground in the field immediately south of Top O the Hill Farms.  I suppose one benefit to this lack of snow is that snowy owls are easier to spot on brown grass.
 
Three weeks ago Saturday, my friend Chad Witko joined me for a day of Cayuga Basin birding.  On that day, we easily saw more individual birds than any other day of our lives.  our estimates could be considered futile (”lots and lots” would be most accurate) but to give an idea, 27,000 canada geese, 25,000+ snow geese, a mixed diving duck flock of 8000.  soo yeah, a hard day to be a conservationist.  This day also saw many rarities in the Cayuga Basin such as Pacific Loon, Bohemian Waxwing, Cackling Goose, Greater White-fronted Goose, Eurasian Widgeon,  Gyrfalcon, and Ross’s Goose.  Luckily, Chad and I had our life GYRFALCON in the Savannah mucklands on rte. 31.  The bird was spotted .75 miles away perched so the ID was questionable with our optics.  The bird took flight in our direction and the mystery was over as the heavy bodied falcon cruised over the mucklands. 
It was truly daunting to see such a large flock of snowgeese with the anticipation to spot a rare bird among them.  so many birds, so little time.  we dipped on the Pacific Loon that afternoon unfortunately.
 
Two weeks ago saturday I did a quick solo tour of the Aurora –> Kings Ferry stretch of the Cayuga Lake shore.  I was fortunate to spot the very distant EARED GREBE at the Wells College Boat house. It was accompanied by several HORNED GREBEs.  I scanned the Canada Geese for any outliers to no avail.  From the Aurora Bluffs area off Lake Road, I had a lone RED-NECKED GREBE.  I had no luck with waxwings at Long Point State Park.  Things got a little out of control on the stretch of Lake Road near the Long Point Winery as I drove past a Red Tailed Hawk “hmm, that’s sweet”; then i saw a Northern Harrier hover and pounce a prey item “aww man, that rocks”; and then i look at the top of a utility pole right next to the road and a SHORT-EARED OWL is sitting there looking at me “holy #$&! that’s awesome!”  I drove past the owl a couple times because it was such a great view.  On the way home, I saw another SHORT-EARED OWL on Rafferty Road (this was all at 3:30PM) and I did a U-ee on rte. 90 near Lick Street to get great looks at a juvenile NORTHERN SHRIKE.
I looked through several CEDAR WAXWING flocks but saw no bohemians.
 
I have had minimal luck with field birds (Larks, Buntings, Longspurs) this winter but hopefully this arctic blast will increase their numbers this week.
 
Stephanie and I tried for the Hammond Hill owls last night with no luck (I don’t blame them for not hooting when it’s that cold)
 
Hope everybody has a chance to get out and see the birds that think our winter is mild.