Went to Montezuma and vicinity today with Dan Watkins. AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN continues at Knox-Marcellus (K-M) Marsh Montezuma NWR. The bird took off and flew at times low to the water and for a while directly toward us landing fairly close to Towpath Rd. Of course my camera is broke( I dropped it... UGH!!) so no photos. It would have been perfect lighting and the bird was on the water and close. Oh well...great looks at this magnificent visitor in any event. The bird then flew back toward East Rd and remained in the grasses where it has usually been found the last week or so.
K-M marsh is also full of shorebirds. Many were distant and hard to id. Numbers appear to be up from last time I was there. Again most common were LESSER YELLOWLEGS but there were a fair number of GREATER YELLOWLEGS too. Next most common appeared to be SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS of what we could ID. Not sure if most were semipalms farther out. There continues to be dowitchers near loafing RING-BILLED GULLS and CASPIAN TERNS. We presumed these guys were all SHORT-BILLED. We did not even try to ID a LONG-BILLED that far out as it is beyond our experience level. STILT SANDPIPERS also continue. There were about 7 again like last time. We also had a few PECTORAL SANDPIPERS and at least one SANDERLING close with another possible one much farther out. We also had a candidate for a BAIRD'S but the bird was too distant for either of us to be certain. There were also a few KILLDEER, one SOLITARY SANDPIPER and a couple SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS. I thought I heard a BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER too but it was distant and called only once so another one for the "possible" category. We did not get WILSON'S PHALAROPE or SNIPE which also have been reported here recently. Strangely no BLACK TERNS here today unlike last week!! Waders continue to be abundant mostly being GREAT BLUE HERONS with probably 30 to 40 GREAT EGRETS. Did not find the LITTLE BLUE HERON among these birds at K-M marsh. There were at least a couple GREEN HERONS. We totaled 62 species at K-M marsh in 2 hours. Next stop was May's to get Dan the RED-HEADED WOODPECKER and instantly we got it close to the road... again, incredible views of such a gorgeous bird. We only saw one of the two that have been reported. We also checked out Tschache Pool and we found at least a dozen or so BLACK TERNS floating around the back of the marsh feeding in a channel. There were also several CASPIAN TERNS, many PIED-BILLED GREBES, COMMON GALLINULE and AMERICAN COOTS as expected. Van Dyne Sporer Road was awesome. There is a lot of dead vegetation so the visibility is good through a large area of this marsh. COMMON GALLINULES and their little fuzzy chicks were everywhere!!! There were also a lot of young gallinules swimming around on their own. I have never seen so many in my life. There were also loads of AMERICAN COOTS. We also had 3 fly by AMERICAN BITTERNS and 4 BLACK CROWNED NIGHT HERONS. There were also loads of BLACK TERNS floating over the marsh. No LITTLE BLUE HERON found here either. We also got a GREEN HERON among many many GREAT BLUE HERONS as expected. We totaled 79 species in the Montezuma Wetlands Complex, another great day of birds! Dave Nicosia -- 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/ --
