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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andrew Whitehouse" data-source="post: 1210464" data-attributes="member: 3550">On Monday afternoon I boarded a Greyhound for Ithaca in upstate New York.  Greyhounds are surely the pride of the American transport system and it was, I thought, a remarkable achievement that I only arrived in Ithaca half an hour later than scheduled, after a delightful journey on a crowded and poorly-maintained bus.  With service like this, and provided for a mere $60, it’s no wonder America is the country that every nation aspires to emulate.  The independence of spirit with which the driver hung around at various bus stations until he felt like carrying on and the excellent, though largely non-verbal, communication skills of the staff were particularly striking.  Actually I did have a good bird sighting from the bus as we passed through the Poconos: three Wild Turkeys strutting about at the side of the road, one with its tail fanned out to glorious effect.I was staying near a site called the Hawthorn Orchard, which is noted for migrants.  When I had a look around the following morning it was pretty clear that the quietening of the migration that I’d noted in Central Park was also apparent in Ithaca.  I did see a couple of new birds for the trip though.  There were plenty of Black-capped Chickadees in the Orchard and a Hairy Woodpecker was attending to its nest in a hedgerow nearby.  During the day, which soon turned cool and windy, I was up at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and I had some time for a look around the famous Sapsucker Woods that surround the Lab.  The highlights here were good views of some Purple Finches coming to the feeders and my first decent views of a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird sat on a branch and showing its glittering throat to good effect.  A Northern Harrier floated over the woods and around the pond I enjoyed watching some giant Great Blue Herons fishing and the noisy Killdeers flying anxiously about.  In the woods I had some good views of Veery and Wood Thrush and both Eastern Phoebe and Eastern Wood-pewee were flycatching from the snags around the lake.  A Muskrat swam quietly in the shallow marshy water.After the Lab I got on the bus back to the main campus of Cornell, which is surely the most spectacularly situated university in the world, with a deep cliff-lined gorge running through the heart of it.  Cornell also manufactures its own ice cream, an innovation I think other academic institutions should adopt.  I headed first to Comstock Knoll and in the tall conifers I had excellent views of a singing Pine Warbler, which was warbler number twenty-five for the trip.  A pair of Dark-eyed Juncos were nearby but my search for Eastern Screech Owl in a regular tree was unsuccessful.From campus I headed through town, past Ithaca Falls and to Stewart Park on the southern shores of Cayuga Lake.  I was hoping to pick up Fish Crow here but there were no crows to be seen until I headed into the nearby Fuentes Reserve, an island of bottomland forest.  The crows here sounded like American Crows but it was what they were making a noise about that interested me.  After a bit of a wait, a big shape flew out of the trees and after another wait I found that the crows were mobbing a family of big, fluffy Great-horned Owls.  I stood watching a young bird and an adult for several minutes as they stoically put up with the attentions of various crows and other birds.  Splendid.  Another enjoyable sight in the same area was of a family of around half-a-dozen Hooded Mergansers following their mother along the creek as it entered the lake.  A Belted Kingfisher was along the same channel.The following morning I only had time for a quick look around the Hawthorn Orchard.  Again there weren’t many migrants but I had fine views of a Brown Thrasher and a couple of Cedar Waxwings.On Thursday I had time for a couple more hours in Central Park before I headed for my flight back to Scotland.  I only managed seven species of warbler but there were a few other decent migrants.  I had lengthy and close views of an Empidomax at the Upper Lobe and, with its short primary projection, rounded head, clear eye-ring and thin tail, I was quite happy that it was a Least Flycatcher.  I also had some good views of a Gray-cheeked Thrush and a couple of Veerys.  Then I was on my way home after quite a decent work trip.  I wish these foreign work trips would come along more often.  I’ve got almost a week to wait for the next one.</blockquote>

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