It seeming a perfect morning for migrating shorebirds, I got out to Myer's Point at 5:45. The "nice and clean" gravel spit provides very little cover for birds now, and nothing of interest was among the sorry-looking over-summering gulls. I decided to stay and do a "watch" on the lake, however, and walked out to the lighthouse -- about 10 minutes later I heard the very distinctive, ringing, "tu-tu-tu-tu-tu" of a WHIMBREL. I scanned high and low but could not find the bird (or birds?), undoubtedly migrating up the lake. When I looked back at the spit to see if anything circled in and landed, I was surprised to see a breeding-plumaged RUDDY TURNSTONE standing at the tip. A few minutes later, there were 2 RUDDY TURNSTONES together -- at about 6:15 the two took off and flew north up the lake.
Then, about 6:25 I spotted 3 large dark shorebirds flying above the horizon, quite a ways across the lake. I followed them for several minutes until they disappeared to the north, and although I did not get very many field marks, I am sure that these were 3 more WHIMBRELS. A little while later, I watched two medium-sized, stocky shorebirds flying rapidly over the lake fairly high -- I think these were probably also RUDDY TURNSTONES, but they potentially could have been Red Knots, or Sanderlings, or something else. Finally, as I was getting ready to leave, I saw that 2 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS were on the gravel spit -- I had not seen them fly in. These birds were very skittish and flew off and returned several times, before finally settling a bit and beginning to feed on the north side of the spit. They were still there when I left at 7 AM. No migrants or Orchard Orioles were in evidence near the park entrance. KEN Ken Rosenberg Director of Conservation Science Cornell Lab of Ornithology 607-254-2412 607-342-4594 (cell) k...@cornell.edu -- 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/ --
