Message from Kurt Fox, below. Hamlin Beach State Park (just NW of Rochester, NY) 2 MISSISSIPPI KITES 159 CAVE SWALLOWS
Details below. Sincerely, Chris T-H Begin forwarded message: From: Kurt Fox <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Date: October 25, 2012 8:53:21 PM EDT To: <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: [GeneseeBirds-L] Awesome day - Cave Swallows, Mississippi Kites Although Andy Guthrie captured the gist of the Hamlin birds today. I want to emphasize that there was a massive movement of birds today, especially finches, and robins. The visibility on the lake was poor due to heavy fog early, and haze most of the day, but even with poor conditions a fair variety / number of waterfowl were moving too. David Tetlow and I were the last to leave Hamlin - about 1:45 PM - with no Cave Swallows visible for over an hour. With the ultra-warm temperatures (well, for Oct 25th in WNY), the suspicion is that swallows (like raptors) were migrating higher than we were able to detect. With similar weather conditions tomorrow plus a frontal passage, tomorrow might be even more productive for swallows along the lakeshore than today. We left Hamlin with 159 CAVE SWALLOWs and 1 BARN Swallow (all flying west). As Andy mentioned, other goodies were: jaegers, Black and Surf Scoters outnumbering WW Scoter, Brant, 6 Snow Geese, Merlin, and a "soaring" RB Nutchatch pair. At Braddock Bay Bennet Road unit, an Ammodramus sparrow was flushed. The 'bouncy' flight, and lack of mantle streaking suggests Nelson's but we could not be sure. Also present were Swamp, Song, Savannah and Am Tree Sparrow, Plenty of tick seed and burrs. Note: now is the time to look for LeConte's Sparrow (and Yellow Rail) in similar habitat as Nelson's (Hog Hole and Montezuma Marten's Tract should be checked carefully). At the East Spit of Braddock Bay, a single BB Plover was on the lakeside. A scan of the gulls produced 1 LBB Gull, but was disrupted by a PEREGRINE FALCON. Several Dunlin flushed. The falcon made several passes, flushing the gulls and ducks. Before I could continue the scan, David alerted me to two raptors in a dog-fight over the West Spit (interpret: very close). One raptor was the Peregrine, the other bird was a MISSISSIPPI KITE! I was able to watch the in-flight spat in the scope with the kite taking the last swipe at the Peregrine. The kite continued over the Bay and took several swipes at an OSPREY, but did not harass the adult BALD EAGLE on the 'island'. The kite drifted back and forth, reluctant to pass over the bay (reminiscent of spring raptors migrating late in the day). With the kite still in my scope view on the opposite side of the bay, David went back to the car to get his video camera. If I was able to keep track of it, we might video footage. Several minutes (!) later the kite had "kettled" up on the far side of the bay, and it took a pass at another raptor... which was a second MISSISSIPPI KITE !!! I had both kites in the same scope view for at least 60 seconds before they drifted out the sides of the field of view. I could only follow one, and watched it until it became a very tiny speck which faded in and out of the haze until I finally lost it quite high and quite far (over Rose's Marsh?). In all, I had a kite in scope view for well over 5 minutes! We drove towards the Manitou Beach overpass and tried scoping from there with Andy Guthrie but had no luck (but did have N. Harrier over the bay). Andy also picked up ~12 WW Crossbills. If the kites are like the spring raptors, it is possible that the kites remained west of the bay, fed and roosted there. Because we walked the length of the east spit to drive to the overpass, the kites may have moved on during that time. ** IF ** the birds did not pass, then the place to be tomorrow morning is the Hawk Watch platform, as it is expected that the kites will rise and move early. Additionally, the bay might be a good place to watch for Cave Swallows, especially if they roost in the Braddock Bay marshes. Hoping for a different view, or more Cave Swallows, the Payne Beach water plant was visited. Three BARN SWALLOWS are still lingering. I headed west to Point Breeze, scanning the lake, and did a search of Oak Orchard River at the point, the marina under the parkway, and at Narby's / Captain's cove, but did not turn up additional swallows. Lots of DC Cormorants remain on the lake. I added Am Kestrel to complete the expected falcons of the day. good birding, Kurt Fox Alexander, NY _______________________________________________ GeneseeBirds-L mailing list - [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://mail.geneseo.edu/mailman/listinfo/geneseebirds-l -- Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes Field Applications Engineer Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850 W: 607-254-2418 M: 607-351-5740 F: 607-254-1132 http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp -- 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/ --
