Hey all, I've been at Montezuma the past couple days; Saturday for a 60+ student SUNY-ESF field trip and Friday for a scouting trip. Both days yielded excellent birding throughout the complex.
On Friday, we found the previously reported male EURASIAN WIGEON at Marten's Tract. The bird was in the far pool, almost to the distant sycamores and barely visible at 60x in the scope. We failed to relocate the bird on Saturday though there were still good numbers of wigeon in the far pool. Also on Friday, we found the NORTHERN SHRIKE at Van Dyne Spoor Rd. The bird was seen briefly in the small trees on the north side of the road before flying off to the northeast. No Short-eared Owls were observed at dusk (my 3rd time dipping on them this winter). Saturday, we found an adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL at Tschache Pool visible from the parking area, among the many thousands of Ring-billeds. The bird stood out very well and was easily found. There was also an adult GREAT BLACK-BACKED here. No white-winged gulls were seen there either day, but I did not have the time to scan through the gulls as well as would have been necessary. Friday, we found an EASTERN PHOEBE in the spruce trees lining the Visitor Center road, immediately off of Route 20. On Saturday, we located two distant, calling SANDHILL CRANES flying over the main pool from the observation tower and platform just north of the Visitor Center. Throughout the complex, there are excellent numbers and diversity of all of the expected waterfowl species. The biggest misses were Blue-winged Teal and, somewhat surprisingly, either species of Scaup (are there typically no scaup here in the spring?? - Ring-necks were everywhere). At Knox-Marcellus, we found one individual each of HORNED and PIED-BILLED GREBE (the only grebes that I saw either day). Snow Geese seem to have largely moved out, as I only saw 3 groups flying total between the two days (~600 birds total), and one pair at the Mucklands on our drive out on Saturday. My two day total was 56 species, though we didn't put much effort into locating the common land birds either day. Good birding, Lewis -- Lewis Grove PhD Student, Wildlife Ecology President, Graduate Student Association SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry 244 Illick Hall, 1 Forestry Drive, Syracuse, NY 13210 Mobile: (814) 880-5667 http://zugunlew.smugmug.com/ -- 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/ --
