6th May

Wandered round the motel car park first thing while the others woke up, and was particularly entertained by at least six White-crowned Sparrows, many singing. I think these are my favourite American sparrows - ultra-smart! After a quick breakfast we drove back to the coast at Hamlin State Park, following up a stakeout for Red-headed Woodpecker. And in fact, within a few minutes of getting out at car park no. 3, one flew across the lake here. Unfortunately, I was the only one to see it at all well, but we persevered for about an hour until we had superb views of at least one bird. The only other tick for me here was a flock of five Rusty Blackbirds that stopped briefly in some tree-tops but were soon off again. Other birds included Eastern Kingbird, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Green Heron, Red-breasted Nuthatch (found on call), Chimney Swift and a superb Magnolia Warbler (as well as Palm, Yellow-rumped and Yellow Warblers). Particularly notable though was the overhead passage of Blue Jays - about 300 flew east during the morning.

We then moved on to car park no. 5 within the park (an enormous car park that was entirely deserted apart from us - it was Sunday, where was everyone?!) We walked through the woods here, adding American Redstart, House Wren and White-breasted Nuthatch to the trip list, as well as Warbling Vireo, Rough-winged Swallow and others. The highlight though came from following up a commotion of calling crows; I suspected it was an owl or raptor, and as we made our way towards the noise in the woods, a Great Horned Owl flew through the trees in an 180 degree arc around us - brilliant!

From here, we drove a few miles further west. Leaving the main road onto a minor one, I glimpsed something slink across in front of us and when we reached that point and jumped out, confirmed my suspicions as my first Wild Turkey crashed away through the undergrowth. We then drove a short distance more to a super little stakeout on Cook Road. A small area had been given over to growing Christmas trees and we rapidly found the target species - Clay-coloured Sparrow. One was feeding on a track here, but there were at least three singing, a nice simple 2-buzz song. I stalked one and eventually got rather decent photos of it singing.

From here we continued west as the others wanted to see Niagara. A Sharp-shinned Hawk over the road was new, and we stopped at a jetty in the village of Wilson that was packed with gulls - mostly American Herring and Ring-billed, but also a single Glaucous which was a bit of a surprise. A Spotted Sandpiper was running around with them also. Then on to Niagara itself, which was OK but a bit smaller than I'd expected, and far more built-up surrounding it. There was a large colony of at least 1000 Ring-billed Gulls here, and otherwise a selection of other common species, including a photogenic Common Grackle and some good views of Turkey Vultures. From here we headed east again, picking up a Cooper's Hawk over the road about 20 miles west of the Brockport exit. Coming off the freeway and heading south to Ithaca we also saw another Wild Turkey by the roadside. We found our hotel for the next few days - the Courtyard Marriott, rather nice - and then headed down into town for dinner.

Trip list = 109 species, lifers 4 today, 19 total

Red-headed Woodpecker, Hamlin State Park

Clay-coloured Sparrow, Cook Road nr Hamlin

Assorted gulls, Wilson (L Ontario)

Common Grackle, Niagara