Today, Shawn Billerman, Nick Sly, Hope Batcheller, and Andy Johnson joined me for a jaunt around the lake. We started at Myers, where we joined Chris and Jessie and Ann and Gary in seeing very, very little. From there we headed up the lake, running into a bit of rain on the way (though that ended up being essentially the only inclement weather we encountered today). Harris Park at the north end was pretty empty. The visitor center pond is great shorebird habitat right now, and there we saw both yellowlegs, many Pectoral Sandpipers, a few Least Sandpipers, and a juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher. Easily the best bird of the day was a juvenile LITTLE BLUE HERON standing on the mudflat in the middle of the visitor center pond. It showed the typical field marks: Small size (much smaller than nearby Great Blues), all-white body, white wings with thin black edges on wingtips in flight, greenish legs, and gray bill with black tip. http://picasaweb.google.com/jmcgowan57/Summer2010#5513216499142031602 http://picasaweb.google.com/jmcgowan57/Summer2010#5513216970526163730 http://picasaweb.google.com/jmcgowan57/Summer2010#5513216970140592354 We watched it for about 10 minutes (9:47-9:57) before it took off and circled once, alighting again in another part of the pool. A few minutes later, it took off again and moved slowly off towards the west (towards Tschache and other parts of the refuge). We lost it in that direction, although it may have landed somewhere in the Main Pool, we weren't sure. A little while later while checking LaRue's, we saw what appeared to be a small white heron drop in to the vegetation behind the impoundment, but after waiting until a boat flushed it, it proved to be only a misleading Great Egret. Two Sandhill Cranes were feeding in the Main Pool, and a very flightless looking Ring-necked Duck was sitting on the shore of the canal.
Tschache had four Trumpeter Swans and the continuing Tundra Swan. Mays Point still hosts the immature Plegadis sp. ibis, as well as more shorebirds than I had seen there previously, including about five Short-billed Dowitchers, almost a dozen Stilt Sandpipers, three Wilson's Snipe, and some Least and Pectoral sandpipers. Duck numbers have increased since last week, with good numbers of Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, and Mallards at Mays Point, as well as two American Black Ducks, four Wood Ducks, two Ring-necked Ducks, and a female Greater Scaup. Knox-Marsellus Marsh, as viewed primarily from Towpath Road, is as good as ever, and now the impoundment beyond it is extremely good for shorebirds as well. View is, as always, fairly distant, although one of the vantage points for the second impoundment afforded some closer views of the mudflat. We found nothing that hasn't been around, but numbers seemed to be up from last weekend. Here are some approximate numbers: Semipalmated Plover - 25 Killdeer - 20 Black-bellied Plover - 1 American Golden-Plover - 8 Greater Yellowlegs - 20 Lesser Yellowlegs - 300 Spotted Sandpiper - 3 Semipalmated Sandpiper - 250 Least Sandpiper - 280 Sanderling - 2 Pectoral Sandpiper - 120 Stilt Sandpiper - 20 Baird's Sandpiper - 15 White-rumped Sandpiper - 25 Red-necked Phalarope - 5 Short-billed Dowitcher - 5 Dowitcher sp. - 10 Sandhill Crane - 3 Caspian Tern - 15 Double-crested Cormorant - 240 Great Blue Heron - 220 Snow Goose - 1 Later we checked Van Dyne Spoor Road and the impoundment near the Audubon Center (which is now tall cattails), but the wind was such that we saw very few birds (although the cattail-fluff blizzard on Van Dyne Spoor was quite spectacular). Jay McGowan Dryden, NY -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
