On Monday morning, over two dozen birders joined Bob McGuire and me for bird walks celebrating the last day of this year's Finger Lakes Land Trust Spring Bird Quest (FLLT SBQ).
The first stop of the morning was the Goetchius Wetland Preserve in Caroline. John Confer, who has been creating a breeding bird map and therefore knows the preserve and its birds better than anyone, joined us here in leading the walk. We all were very grateful for his assistance in finding birds throughout the morning. What's more, John provided much useful historical and geographic context for understanding this preserve, its creation, ongoing evolution, and the continued threats it faces as hydrofracking looms here and throughout the region. Bob and I met John at 5:15 AM for an early search in hopes of raising my SBQ species tally. By the time we convened for the full group walk a little more than an hour later, we had added at least a dozen species to my weekend total, including BARRED OWL (calling several times from the wooded slope to the east), BLACKPOLL WARBLER, NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH, KILLDEER (including a chick starting to acquire ringed plumage), SPOTTED SANDPIPER, and LEAST SANDPIPER. Then our whole group gathered and we set off on foot south along the road from the parking lot. I thought that we had very good luck finding birds perched for scope views, including BOBOLINK, EASTERN MEADOWLARK, SAVANNAH SPARROW, WILLOW FLYCATCHER, EASTERN KINGBIRD, CEDAR WAXWING, YELLOW WARBLER, BALTIMORE ORIOLE, GREEN HERON, TREE SWALLOW, and probably others I'm forgetting. Arguably, though, our birding highlight never appeared except as ripples in the water, as two grunting VIRGINIA RAILS approached our group closely but remained out of view for most of us. Bob Horn saw at least one actual rail. Our second group walk was at the Park Nature Preserve in Dryden. We found most of the birds that Dave Nutter reported yesterday, but viewing was mostly quite difficult. We heard several PRAIRIE WARBLERS, three CANADA WARBLERS, BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLERS, at least one HERMIT THRUSH, but didn't manage to see any of these birds. We did, however, get brief looks at a LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH at the bottom of the ravine near the shelter, and several fine scope views of singing male INDIGO BUNTINGS and MAGNOLIA WARBLER. Unquestionably the biggest surprise for me was a BROAD-WINGED HAWK flying high from west to east - the first of this species that I've ever found on the SBQ. My final species tally for the weekend is 92, which I consider quite acceptable given the heat and lateness of Memorial Day weekend this year. The event will again raise over $3,000 for the Land Trust. I extend my sincere thanks to Bob and John, as well as the Land Trust's Betsy Darlington, for their assistance with the walks. Many thanks to all who participated and pledged! 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/ --
