Almost everything about today's Finger Lakes Land Trust Spring Bird Quest (SBQ) group walk met or exceeded my highest hopes - warm sunshine, still winds, 25+ spirited supporters in attendance, and the usual bird specialties about as cooperative as I've ever found them. We even had one long-coveted but still surprising addition to my SBQ life list. I am pleased to present this full report.
Lindsay-Parsons Biodiversity Preserve Routes 34 and 96, West Danby 6:10 - 10:45 AM 65 species, including YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER, BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO, PRAIRIE WARBLER, MAGNOLIA WARBLER, CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER, BLACKPOLL WARBLER, BLACK-AND WHITE WARBLER, BLUE-WINGED WARBLER, HOODED WARBLER, CANADA WARBLER, MOURNING WARBLER, and BROWN THRASHER I began the morning with Jody Enck on the west side of Routes 34 and 96 at the Land Trust's wooded pond by the fire station. Through the dissipating fog, we saw at least three GREAT BLUE HERON nests looming in distant dead trees, each with a hunchbacked parent sitting low and barely visible above the lip of sticks. Here we heard a GREEN HERON (Jody saw it fly in and out), and also the weekend's first HOODED MERGANSERS. My intentions for a longer vigil over the snags and still waters were soon foiled by songbird commotion in neighboring hedgerows. We sifted through quite an impressive assortment just between the fire station and the road leading up to the water tower - two MOURNING WARBLERS, HOODED WARBLER, BLUE-WINGED WARBLER, CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER, MAGNOLIA WARBLER, BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER, AMERICAN REDSTART, OVENBIRD, a pair of YELLOW WARBLERS, and a singer that put me on high alert for a Cape May (alas, unconfirmed and uncounted). The Mourning Warblers were very close, but defied our patient attempts to get a good view. My best glimpse revealed the whole bird for a split second, from full gray hood to to yellow underside to pink legs, but left me feeling my glass about three-quarters empty. But I got fired up again in a hurry at the sight of our group, all tucked in and ready to roll at 8 AM. (I admit to sometimes feeling just a bit dorky when I tuck my pant legs into tall white socks for tick suppression at this preserve. If you have the same problem, you should really try joining two dozen others who are likewise arrayed. It's very socially affirming.) We followed our usual SBQ path down the big open slope to Coleman Lake. We had excellent views of singing PRAIRIE WARBLERS at four different sites; I confirmed three singing more or less simultaneously on adjacent territories. At one point, one of these birds perched right above the trail three meters from the front of our queue, and sang and preened for more than five minutes in perfect light. We also saw a cuckoo dashing all the way across the open space. The bird in flight gave all of us the impression of being very rufous, but not markedly more so on the wings. A BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO called behind us just as we watched the other cuckoo fly away. It was confusing enough that I am counting only one of the two cuckoo species. A BROWN THRASHER in flight here was surprisingly silent, but still much easier to ID. The highlight of our stop at Coleman Lake was a SPOTTED SANDPIPER expertly spotted by Ken Kemphues probably 200 meters away, bobbing away behind a cordon of turtles. It was quiet along the lower open stretches of the blue trail, but then by the railroad tracks, we found two singing HOODED WARBLERS (one provided a very brief but diagnostic view), a CANADA WARBLER, and a cooperative MAGNOLIA WARBLER. A third Hooded Warbler and a Chestnut-sided Warbler sang repeatedly near Celia's Cup, giving us a fine lesson in the subtle differences of their emphatic songs. We ended with a side jaunt over to the red trail and the northern pond, where we found the day's biggest surprise - a YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER piping its slurred two-note call from the hedgerow. I don't have a lot of experience with this call, but comparison with recordings from the Macaulay Library leave no doubt in my mind about whether to count this bird. Here we also found the weekend's first WILLOW FLYCATCHER, just seconds after I began lamenting missing it. I am still stuck without some very common species for my weekend tally, including Killdeer and Turkey Vulture, but I guess that just gives us more reason to look forward to tomorrow. I hope to see many of you at the Goetchius Wetland Preserve at 6:30 and the Roy H. Park Preserve at 8:30! Mark Chao --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com -- 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/ --
