First of all, thanks to all who have posted recently on some great birds in the Cayuga Basin! That helped me plan my route for today. I had 4 "goal" birds today... yellow-throated warbler, prothonotary warbler, clay-colored sparrow and wilson's phalarope.
Took my 10 year old son, Thomas, with me. Shhh, he wasn't feeling well today ;) . Thomas is my only son of 3 who still is interested in birds. So, we headed first to Renwick Woods/Fuerte's Sanctuary and crossed the bridge to go to the 3rd hole tee and search the Sycamores. We ran into Bill Baker as I mentioned on a previous post. We thought we might have heard it a couple times, but it was faint and there was a lot of noise. Bird at least this morning around 930 was not vocal. So 0 for 1. But, a really nice consolation prize...a gorgeous male BALTIMORE ORIOLE landed very close at eye-level in a tree giving my son excellent views. Priceless. There was a nice NORTHERN PARULA silent but working the tree-tops of one of the sycamores. I also heard an ORCHARD ORIOLE singing from the edge of the woods by the bridge/platform back to Stewart Park. Next stop Myer's. had another singing ORCHARD ORIOLE at the entrance where he was last year. From Myer's Point nothing unusual...except for basic plumage COMMON LOON http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/7245048904/in/set-72157629838176586/ Did not have the time to stay and watch for any migrants up the lake. Next stop was 2286 KING Road, Seneca Falls, as Dave Nutter pointed out. East road must have been on my mind! Anyway, CLAY-COLORED SPARROW singing prominently zheee zheee zheee. Saw bird flitting around in tall Poplar tree next to house. He did not go to the tips of the blue spruces for me like last year. No photos. Great bird. Now 1 for 2. >From Armitage Road, 2 singing PROTHONOTARY WARBLERS as Jay McGown also mentioned. Now 2 for 3. Also CERULEAN WARBLER, EASTERN WOOD-PEWEE and a few other common birds. Puddler's Marsh from Towpath Road was excellent. Again birds are a bit distant but today around noon the lighting was half way decent and the birds were close enough to avoid nasty heat shimmer. The WILSON'S PHALAROPEs stood right out immediately. 3 for 4. All 4 that Ken Rosenberg had were still there today. 2 male and 2 female. These guys and gals were so actively feeding much more so than the DUNLIN and others around. We really enjoyed watching them through the scope. 20X was sufficient but 60X was awesome. Unfortunately, I can't take any decent digiscope photos at 60x, I have tried before! So I took a few at 20X from my scope with my camera. They are lousy photos but good enough to document these great birds. We really enjoyed the phalaropes for quite sometime. The exact location of the birds at Puddler's is on the map feature on flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/7245046394/in/set-72157629838176586/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/7245045262/in/set-72157629838176586/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/7245047202/in/set-72157629838176586/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/7245048020/in/set-72157629838176586/ I did have a chance to scan for others...saw many BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, several SEMIPALMATED PLOVER LEAST SANDPIPER and 1 PECTORAL SANDPIPER. This guy stood out among the LEASTs and I thought maybe I had a more unusual specie at first...but it was a PECTORAL clearly saw the black mottling on the upper breast with a clean lower belly with sharp dividing line. Bird was also in its typical upright position and much bigger. I did not see any RED KNOTS or BAIRD'S as was posted later. I also had 2 REDHEADS, GREEN-WINGED TEAL, NORTHERN SHOVELERS and 1 GREAT EGRET here. May's Point had scads of SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS and more LEAST SANDPIPERS. Lighting was poor so I really could not definitively find any SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS. They probably were there as well as at Puddler's Marsh. There were also 2 GREAT EGRET at May's. Tschache Pool had 6 more REDHEADS and many more typical birds. Could not find any BLACK TERNS today. Tried and tried. None were flying around early in the afternoon I guess. Wildlife Drive had 1 GREATER YELLOWLEGS. That is all for shorebirds beside KILLDEER. I did have 1 pair of BLUE-WINGED TEAL at Larue's/Lesser Yellowleg Unit. We also had to stop and see how the Mud Lock eaglets were doing. This place has become a spectacle among many people as there were at least 6 cars of people watching these birds today when I arrived!! They are at a safe distance and afford awesome views. What a great spot for a BALD EAGLE nest! http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/7245050974/in/set-72157629838176586/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/7245049944/in/set-72157629838176586/ That's it. Another great day in the Cayuga Basin. My son also learned a lot today!!! 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/[email protected]/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/ --
