Coping with a bout of literal Empty Nest Syndrome, I joined Ann Mitchell for a birding trip to Montezuma NWR this morning.
Our first stop was the Myers/Salt Point/Ladoga Park area where we saw 1 each Spotted, Least, and Semipalmated Sandpiper on the Myers spit, at least 2 Green Herons, a possible family group of 4 Belted Kingfishers, and 3 large nestling Ospreys at Salt Point, and the male Redhead off Ladoga, but we failed to find any orioles nor the recent male White-winged Scoter. At Montezuma NWR we took advantage of the new temporary policy regarding the Wildlife Drive. For the first time in many years, this year bicycling and walking are permitted, but only from 12 July to 15 August. The reasoning as I understand it is that nesting is generally over by mid-July but the influx of migrant waterfowl doesn't begin until mid-August, and refuge manager(s) at Montezuma fear that people walking or bicycling on the Wildlife Drive would disturb those birds' activities, even though walking and bicycling are allowed on similar drives at other National Wildlife Refuges year-round. Southbound shorebird migration, however, is underway starting in early July, and they are generally not bothered by people, so refuge managers are not concerned about them. Shorebirds' tolerance may have to do with people in this part of the world not shooting at them much anymore, in contrast to waterfowl, or managers' abundance of caution regarding the migrant waterfowl may be an over-reaction. In my experience around Cayuga Lake, as pedestrians, bike riders, or people outside of their motor vehicles, we can get good views of various migrant waterfowl calmly going about their business when & where there is not active shooting. Anyway, this policy is a great start, in my opinion, and Ann & I enjoyed walking out along the left side, which is now covered in finer gravel, a.k.a. stone dust, and is more pleasant to walk and bike upon. I wish the whole Wildlife Drive used that surface, because it is far quieter! We went as far as the Seneca Flats area where we saw many Ring-billed Gulls, 9 Caspian Terns, a Great Egret, 2 Green Herons, a Killdeer, a Greater Yellowlegs, 3 Lesser Yellowlegs, 3 Pectoral Sandpipers, and several Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers in addition to the local Canada Goose families and eclipse Mallards. Plus in the air there were many swallows (mainly Tree), a couple of immature Bald Eagles, a non-breeding plumage Black Tern, and several distant Ospreys. In the marsh along our way we also saw families of Common Gallinules (and even watched an adult vocalizing), saw and heard Willow Flycatchers and Swamp Sparrows, and heard one calling Virginia Rail and numerous persistently invisible singing Marsh Wrens and. When we were alongside Larue's Lagoon a car pulled up alongside us on the drive. It was driven by Dave Kennedy, whom everyone on this list serve should know as the finder and photographer of many wonderful birds in the north basin, such as Gyrfalcons, a backyard Rufous Hummingbird, etc. It's worth looking at any eBird checklists which he posts, just to enjoy his photos. I find them in my eBird Seneca County year needs and rare bird reports. Dave was talking to us about the new pedestrian policy on the Wildlife Drive. Ann told him how nice it was to be able to hear so much more outside of a vehicle. I generally hear at least twice as many birds when I'm outside a vehicle, because the engine makes noise, the wheels make noise (especially on the Wildlife Drive's gravel!), and the cabin generally blocks a great deal of bird sound, even with the windows open. I started to tell him about how wonderful it was to see the entire sky, and Dave jokingly gave me a hard time for my arm gesture because it might scare birds. Then he told us about a LEAST BITTERN which he noticed moving in the cattails behind us on the opposite side of the channel. Even though we had been looking for this species, and thought we knew what to look for, Dave had to get out of his car and point it out to us. He took a few pictures and went on his way. Meanwhile, the bird stayed in view for many minutes while we enjoyed it. We photographed it in various positions as it perched atop a cattail fruit (what do you call that cylindrical brown thing?). We told occupants of another passing car about it, and they got out, saw it through our scopes (a life bird for at least one of them), and took their own photos including some in flight when the bird finally a short distance moved off to another part of the marsh. This was a wonderful experience, one of my best sightings of the species, and a year bird as well, and it was made possible by the new policy allowing people out of their cars on the Wildlife Drive. Later on I had a second glimpse of a Least Bittern briefly flying just above the cattail tops. I'm pretty sure I would not have been able to see it from the lower vantage of my car's seat because Ann, being shorter than I, missed that one. Eaton Marsh had a couple Greater Yellowlegs and a dozen or so Lesser Yellowlegs, but no Ruff that we saw. It did have a single breeding plumage DOWITCHER which Ann confidently called LONG-BILLED. I agreed it had a prominent and ruffled hump on its back as it fed, but I didn't have a very good look at it otherwise from the right side of the car, nor am I as confident speciating dowitchers without a good long study. There was also a female REDHEAD at Eaton among the Mallards. Perhaps it bred at Montezuma. There were 13 Great Egrets at Benning. Another goal of our trip was to check on the Red-headed Woodpeckers which have again been nesting along South Mays Point Road. We had both seen them at their nest cavity earlier this year, thanks to Mike Tetlow, I believe, for discovering it in the dead top of a spreading multi-branched Cottonwood northeast of the community on the island between the Clyde River and the Erie Canal, and best viewed from S Mays Pt Rd just south of house #555. We got out our scopes and quickly located the nest hole. At least I thought we both did. Then Ann said she couldn't find it for awhile. It turns out that adult Red-headed Woodpeckers are very well named, but their young are not. On the other hand, it seems like a brilliant bit of adaptation that juveniles, who like to look out of the nest hole while they await the return of adults with food, are entirely covered on the head and neck with a fine streaking of brownish gray. It's very similar to the color of Cottonwood bark and it visually plugs the hole. See Ann's eBird report with photo referenced below. There appeared to us to be just one full-sized juvenile moving its head out and back into the cavity. >From East Road we saw several adults and one immature of the Black-crowned >Night-Herons which Sandy Podulka mentioned near the north end of >Knox-Marsellus, along with a Green Heron, several Great Egrets and Great Blue >Herons, and an adult of what appeared to be a Trumpeter Swan although heat >shimmer made details of its bill a bit uncertain. We checked Kipp Island Fields South looking west from NYS-90 along the south side of I-90 (the Thruway). We saw no Ruff, but did see a few Yellowlegss and Semipalmated Sandpipers, and we wondered how much shorebird habitat was out of view in that region east of Eaton where Tim Lenz et al saw the Ruff head yesterday evening. There were also a couple of distant immature swans at Kipp, and their bills (in crappy heat shimmery light) appeared quite pink to me, so I wondered if they might be TUNDRAs? Anybody else have a good look and idea about them? --Dave Nutter Sent from my iPad Begin forwarded message: > From: ebird-al...@cornell.edu > Date: July 20, 2017 at 7:23:35 PM EDT > To: Undisclosed recipients: ; > Subject: [eBird Alert] Seneca County Rare Bird Alert <hourly> > > *** Species Summary: > > - Red-headed Woodpecker (1 report) > > --------------------------------------------- > Thank you for subscribing to the <hourly> Seneca County Rare Bird Alert.The > report below shows observations of rare birds in Seneca County. > NOTE: all sightings are UNCONFIRMED unless indicated > > Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) (2) > - Reported Jul 20, 2017 11:04 by Ann Mitchell > - Montezuma NWR--Mays Point Pool and road, Seneca, New York > - Map: > http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&q=42.9946205,-76.7637599&ll=42.9946205,-76.7637599 > - Checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S38239625 > - Media: 1 Photo > - Comments: "One adult and one juvenile. Adult flying around and fed the > juvenile twice while I was watching. When the juvenile poked it's head out of > the hole, it was difficult to find the hole because it matched the tree > color. 1 photo." > > *********** > > You received this message because you are subscribed to eBird's Seneca County > Rare Bird Alert > > Manage your eBird alert subscriptions: > http://ebird.org/ebird/alerts -- 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/ --
