I spent all of Sunday morning looking for birds at the Lindsay-Parsons Biodiversity Preserve in West Danby. I spent the first couple of hours with Bob McGuire, Tom Hoebbel, and Sydney Penner, trying to find species and boost my weekend total for the Finger Lakes Land Trust Spring Bird Quest (SBQ). Then, starting at 8 AM, Bob and I led a group of at least 25 birders (!) around the preserve.
By my count, including various parties separate from ours, people have collectively found at least 79 bird species in Lindsay-Parsons today. My own total was about 70, leaving me with a running weekend tally of 85 species found on Land Trust properties. This number is modest compared with previous second-day totals, but I don't feel even the slightest disappointment. The birding and the company have been as good as ever all weekend. See below for details. Mark Chao __________________________ Lindsay-Parsons Biodiversity Preserve Routes 34/96, West Danby 6:00-11:00 AM 70+ species, including GREEN HERON, HOODED MERGANSER, COOPER'S HAWK, YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO, ACADIAN FLYCATCHER, ALDER FLYCATCHER, WILLOW FLYCATCHER, BLUE-HEADED VIREO, YELLOW-THROATED VIREO, WINTER WREN, BROWN THRASHER, BLUE-WINGED WARBLER, CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER, BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER, BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER, BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER, MOURNING WARBLER, HOODED WARBLER, and BOBOLINK Bob, Tom, Sydney, and I started by standing on the gravel piles by the West Danby Fire Station and scanning the swampy pond. We found the weekend's first Hooded Merganser (a female perched for a long time on a nest box), and uncannily, within a second or two of Bob's first mentioning the possibility, a Pileated Woodpecker calling from the slope. Then from the old railroad bed on the east side, we found Hooded, Mourning, and Magnolia Warbler, plus our first SBQ Blue-headed Vireo this year. Then we searched the hemlock woods along Station Road, a tract that the Land Trust acquired just a few years ago. Here, we found a couple of countersinging Acadian Flycatchers at their customary location along the stream (salutations to Ryan Douglas from afar), and a couple of Blackburnian Warblers that sang obscured in the treetops and eventually chased each other right along the road. On our group outing, we had almost too many highlights to count. We had glimpses of Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Brown Thrasher; scope views of Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Indigo Bunting, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and Alder Flycatcher; repeated instructive looks at a circling Cooper's Hawk; a long encounter with a male Black-throated Green Warbler that sang on a low branch right over the trail, then flew off with food in his bill; and even apart from birding, sightings of two very obliging White Admirals, many Northern Bluets, and a Black Rat Snake in repose under a hot tin roof in an old shed. Maybe the most heartening and amazing thing part of our walk was the opportunity to witness the field skills of an eleven-year-old girl named Courtney, who was visiting from out of town. Throughout the morning, she was a step or two ahead of all of us in finding and identifying birds by sound and sight. She birded with no optics except a camera with a long lens, with which she snapped off photos of many birds, including the cuckoo. Apparently Courtney has photographed many cuckoos before, including FIVE IN ONE TREE TOGETHER (both species) in Sapsucker Woods a couple of weeks ago. Later she showed us more of her bird photos, which were beautiful and action-packed and sharp, despite the lack of an image stabilizer on her camera. In our community we are perennially blessed to have many young people with prodigious skill and great passion for birding, but I don't know if I've ever met anyone more capable at such an early age. Many thanks to all who turned out for the walk! -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
