I think I was so surprised to see the bird to begin with, I assumed it was an Hudsonian Godwit. The bird was back lit and hard to see. When we drove next to it, we could easily see that it was very clearly a Marbled Godwit. Good Birding, Ann
On Sat, Apr 23, 2011 at 9:41 PM, J. Gary Kohlenberg <[email protected]>wrote: > > On Apr 23, 2011, at 2:25 PM, Jay McGowan wrote: > > Ann and Gary just found a MARBLED GODWIT at Montezuma that we are now > looking at. It is along the wildlife drive at the new shorebird flats just > before the turn for Benning (visible from the photo blind pulloff.) > > Lucky for us Jay and Andrew VanNorstrand were close by when we texted > initially of a Hudsonian Godwit at the new shorebird flats in Montezuma. > Ann first spotted what we determined was a Godwit, but not being a > breeding/nonbreeding male or juvenile I thought it might be a breeding > female. It didn't seem quite right, not as buffy colored as I would have > thought, some barring on the tertials, dark eyeline and white supercilium > giving the face a contrasty look, but Marbled seemed less likely. When Jay > and Andrew pulled in they immediately confirmed we were looking at a Marbled > Godwit. > > Only the second Marbled for me and a lifer for Jennifer Rothe, who we had > flagged down as she drove past on the wildlife drive. Jen is from Wisconsin > and was on her way to Saratoga. When we drove farther up to get photos the > light was much better and I could immediately see the overall buffy color, > heavy barring on scapulars and tertials extending onto the breast and sides, > dark legs, bicolored base of bill yellow to black at tip, the crown was > darker and finely streaked. The eyebrow is more white than ground color as > Sibley's shows though. > > A beautiful bird and very close to the road about 3/4 of the way from photo > blind to corner. I hope it stays the night for others to see. Maybe Jay will > post some pictures. I digiscoped, but not having a hosting site yet I can't > post a link to them. > > There really are many shorebirds, mostly Yellowlegs but Jay and Andrew saw > Dunlin too, in Northern Montezuma's corn stubble. They were hard to see > until a Peregrine Falcon over Carncross Rd. put them all in the air. Then we > could see many hundreds. They will probably reconstitute there because > everywhere else is flooded. > > 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/ --
