Took a trip to Montezuma with my birding pal Dan Watkins. We stopped at Myer's to get the Orchard Orioles for Dan with success. At first, we did not hear or see them at all. So, we walked to the point which was flooded and found a couple GREATER YELLOWLEGS, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, COMMON LOONS, BUFFLEHEAD and various swallows. On the way back to the car at the entrance there were 2 ORCHARD ORIOLES singing near the entrance. I located both birds which were 1st year males with black bibs. As they chased each other around, another one was singing from across the railroad tracks near the entrance. This was an adult male in the maroon/chestnut plumage. So there are 3 there as pointed out by John Greenley.
The MNWR visitor's center has the same waterfowl seen a couple days ago. I stopped in the center and spoke with Jane Graves who had CERULEAN WARBLERS at Howland Island, and also near the restrooms where they were last year. She also indicated that there were 3 BLACK TERNS at May's. We struck out on the Cerulean warblers near the restrooms and there were none singing at May's. We did not get to Howland Island either. Maybe next time. But, we did have 4 BLACK TERNS flying around at May's. May's again had a very nice variety of waterfowl, coots, moorhen and pied-billed grebe. The woods also had some warblers. We decided to give Towpath Road a try and given that the water is so high it was not bad at all. I have seen it much worse. We had many many YELLOW WARBLERS. We also heard BLACK AND WHITE. The best birds from Towpath were 4 CASPIAN TERNS loafing which were close enough to get great looks throughs bins and especially with our scopes. Not much else there other than what we had already seen. Next stop was Carncross Road and we picked out a beautiful BLACK BELLIED PLOVER in breeding plumage. This guy was a little distant but we were able to make out the white undertail. The bill was also thicker and the bird was pudgier so I am certain it was a BLACK BELLIED vs. AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. There were also many other species of waterfowl there all of what we had already seen. No cranes today and the bonaparte's gulls of the past couple days did not show either. Went to Morgan road next and found a VESPER SPARROW on the wire across the road from the house that is up a little above the fields. Railroad Rd was flooded so we were not able to get out too far but we did hear the AMERICAN BITTERN. I was unable to get the SORA or VIRGINIA RAIL( no speakers on my blackberry to call them out from this distance.) Overall, given that we missed many of our common forest birds, we totaled 106 species. Not a bad day. Plus the weather was nice. Finally! Dave Nicosia Johnson City, NY -- 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/ --
