On Sunday, I had a long, rich morning of birding with Bob McGuire and others at Lindsay-Parsons Biodiversity Preserve in West Danby.
Bob, Dave Nutter, and I started right at dawn (5:15 AM) by the swampy pond next to the West Danby fire station. We found a couple of WOOD DUCKS, several singing SWAMP SPARROWS, BLUE-WINGED and CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER, TREE and NORTHERN-ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS, an EASTERN KINGBIRD, and a PILEATED WOODPECKER calling from the slope, among many others. >From here, the three of us climbed the steep road to the water tower. The woods were filled with bird songs, including those of YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO, MOURNING WARBLER, YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, AMERICAN REDSTART, OVENBIRD, WOOD THRUSH, HERMIT THRUSH, and BROWN CREEPER. Ann Mitchell was awaiting us by our cars at the fire station upon our return. Together we proceeded to Station Road, where we entered the hemlock woods of the preserve. Here we heard several BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLERS and at least one SCARLET TANAGER. By following a streambed upstream toward the state forest border, we rather easily found an ACADIAN FLYCATCHER singing his explosive song. Disappointingly, we failed to find any Blackburnian Warblers in the coniferous treetops. While Dave and Ann continued onward to explore the woods up on the eastern slope of the preserve, Bob and I returned to the main parking lot. We heard a singing ALDER FLYCATCHER just east of the parking area and saw three GREEN HERONS flying south past the house across the street. Then, on a quick walk to Coleman Lake and back, we found many birds, raising our hopes that we'd have a lot to share with others when they arrived. Our group walk, the second of four on this weekend's Finger Lakes Land Trust Spring Bird Quest (SBQ), started at 8 AM. About a dozen birders participated. Even before we hit the trail, we had a surpassing bird-watching moment, as a male YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER perched for a full half-minute facing us, offering a dazzling view of the contrast of his red throat, black breast, and yellow belly. We also saw a COOPER'S HAWK buzz by, much to the agitation of the neighborhood Barn Swallows. Then we set off. Our first stop was by the big pair of maple trees not far to the right of the first trail split. Here a few of us had a momentary view of a PRAIRIE WARBLER just a few feet away. Then we heard two BLACK-BILLED CUCKOOS exchanging vocalizations; with some patience and teamwork, eventually we all got fine views of one of these birds feeding silently and obscurely in the foliage. Several times this cuckoo flew across open space to a different tree, and ultimately, made a stunningly graceful aerial dash all the way to the island of brush near the third split of the blue trail, near Coleman Lake. We proceeded down to this area and found the Black-billed Cuckoo again, along with another. After a brief chase, one cuckoo perched at length in the lower branches of a very short lone round pine. This patch, as always, was one of the preserve's most productive areas for birding. Here we found Prairie Warblers, a pair of INDIGO BUNTINGS (female holding nest material), and a pair of FIELD SPARROWS (one bird twice seen holding a green caterpillar and staying perched, chipping, and finally diving into a shrub only after it felt our watching eyes turn away). Continuing on the blue trail, we saw several other L-P specialties, including two Chestnut-sided Warblers (quite a lot of both song types), two or more Blue-winged Warblers, EASTERN TOWHEE, and RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD. At Celia's Cup, we heard one HOODED WARBLER singing repeatedly at fairly close range, but we didn't manage to see him. Somehow we missed finding Black-and-White Warbler, even though Bob had found at least one on territory nearby within the last couple of weeks. At this point we headed back, following the same trails on which we had entered. Predictably, we found fewer birds as the heat of the day and maybe our own fatigue set in toward 10:30. We did, however, have the fine parting gift of a singing BOBOLINK passing several times right overhead, eventually pursuing a female with ardent high speed and disappearing with her. Our total species tally was 61, leaving me with 73 species found on Land Trust properties so far on this year's SBQ. Tomorrow I'll offer two FLLT SBQ walks - the first one at the Goetchius Wetland Preserve starting at 6:30 AM, and the second at the Park Nature Preserve starting at 8:30 AM. Waterproof shoes are likely to be very helpful. I look forward to seeing you! 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/ --
