As Laura Stenzler and Scott Haber have noted, today's birding in Sapsucker Woods is quite astonishingly good. In terms of bird diversity, certain past days could perhaps match this one, or maybe not. But I have no doubt that overall, for the quality of viewing as well as the quantity of species, today stands alone as the best day I've ever had in the sanctuary.
Miyoko Chu and I actually started late in Sapsucker Woods (~9:30 AM), having first enjoyed a fine visit to the Hawthorn Orchard. Still, we rather easily found all 21 warbler species on the Wilson Trail as reported by Scott and Laura, including views of females of 14+ species. Laura and Scott both mentioned seeing multiple boreal warbler species in the large spruce on the lower branch of the trail; I'll add that the small, tight pair of rather spindly spruce trees between the Fuller Wetlands and the first trail split had an incredible mix of birds all together in plain sight for at least 20 minutes around 11 AM, including two male and at least one female BAY-BREASTED WARBLER; one male and one female CAPE MAY WARBLER; male and female BLACKPOLL WARBLER; male and female MAGNOLIA WARBLER; and nearby TENNESSEE WARBLER, plus Purple Finches and others. We had a few other notable finds, including a "vireo sweep" (Red-eyed, Warbling, PHILADELPHIA, BLUE-HEADED, and YELLOW-THROATED), a singing ALDER FLYCATCHER (first of year for me), at least one Fish Crow flying over issuing typical double calls, some Chimney Swifts, and a SWAINSON'S THRUSH seen issuing some very unfamiliar "burk.burk..jrreee" calls. Yesterday Miyoko found a dead Swainson's Thrush on the ground outside our home in suburban northeast Ithaca. The cause of death was clearly a window strike; somewhat surprisingly, these windows face north. It was a sad duty and yet a great privilege to be able to recover this bird's body, to feel its softness and lightness in my hand, and to study its subtle colors and shining half-shut eyes up close. We brought the bird to the Lab, where we hope it will rest in peace in the collections, while also contributing to our human understanding of its surviving kin. Mark Chao -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
