Susan, Ann, Judy and myself went birding up the lake all day today. We started at 7:30, in Stewart Park, with Stuart and Paul rounding out the group. They decided to stay locally after Salt Point. It was a great day with a good diversity of birds and a little fire thrown in. One of our target birds was Snipe which managed to elude us until the very last stop north.
I'll only list the highlights because I'm tired. Stewart Park: 11 Bonaparte's Gulls 1 D.C Cormorant 1 Greater Scaup 3 Lesser Scaup Wood Ducks Drake Rd: Field Sparrow Savanna Sparrow Myer's Pt: Nice breeding plumage Common Loon Salt Pt: Nothing ! LOL Center Rd: Great views of two Vesper Sparrows in a tree. Montezuma NWR main pool: The story here was the large wildfire. We spent a couple hours hanging out watching the flames and smoke column that was visible from Syracuse and West of Geneva according to some visitors we spoke with. I had never seen so many people there ! A real crowd pleaser and amazing to watch through a scope. I think the immediate impact on nesting birds will be negligible because many haven't arrived yet. We even saw a couple White-tailed Deer feeding in a burned area shortly after it cooled down. Syracuse News was there interviewing the Refuge Manager so a Google should get the story. They hadn't determined the cause yet while we were there in the late morning. The drive was closed, but there was a small flock of Pectoral Sandpipers a Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs at the Visitor Center mudflat. East Rd: Barn Swallow Railroad Rd: Virginia Rail Eurasian Wigeon Carncross Rd: Sandhill Crane Martins Tract: 5 Trumpeter Swans Crusoe Flats at Audubon Center: Finally we find the Wilson's Snipe we were searching for and 38 of them at that ! Osprey were at many locations today along with Kestrels, lots of Red-tails, and Turkey Vultures. I'm sure I missed some highlights that the others can add to. It was a great day with terrific peeps. :) Gary -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
