I drove up to Montezuma later yesterday afternoon, checked a few of the favorite birding locales, then spent the night on Howland Island in order to be up at the crack of dawn to record the dawn chorus.
I have nothing of note to report from yesterday. Shorebird numbers seemed to be way down at Knox-Marsellus. Contrary to reports I had heard, neither of the ponds at the MAC have been drawn down, and there was no shorebird habitat to speak of. The pond at Marten's Tract was covered with duckweed and was empty save for two Wood Ducks and a Great Blue Heron - although a Black-crowned Night-Heron flew up out of the cattails as I walked past. There is an attractive new viewing platform overlooking the "deep muck" off Savannah-Spring Lake Road. But, for now, it looks over a small patch of water and just a couple of Great Blues. Van Dyne Spoor Road - the so-called "Sandhill Crane Unit" - was also fairly uninteresting, with a few Coots, Gallinules, and Pied-billed Grebes close to the road. I did have an American Bittern fly in around 7:45 pm. Several Great Egrets came in from the south to a roost that is hidden deep in the cattails. And several flocks of Red-winged blackbirds, numbering in the hundreds each, came in to roost. I parked overnight at the iron bridge, the southern approach to Howland Island. The night was remarkably quiet - few insects and an occasional Barred Owl call. Hoping for some sort of dawn chorus, I was up and across the bridge by 5:30. The first birds to call were the Mourning Doves, but then it was a long half hour before anything else chimed in. This time it was a couple of Eastern Wood-Pewees. I walked the eastern loop, along "warbler way", past several of the ponds, and back out to the main N/S road. All in all, I encountered only two feeding flocks and was able to note PIne and Chestnut-sided Warblers, Ovenbird, a couple of American Redstarts, two Tanagers, a couple of Wood Thrushes and Chickadees, Titmice, and Nuthatches. I did get a good recording of the Wood-Pewee's "pureee" call but nothing beyond that. Bugs were only a small problem, with more black flies than mosquitoes. On the way back I stopped off at Knox-Marsellus as viewed from Towpath Road. With the morning light coming in from the east, the mud flats were easy to scan although most of the birds were well to the north. The mix of birds was in constant flux due to the presence of one, then two, juvenile Peregrine Falcons, joined at one point by a Merlin. I never saw any of the falcons actually catch anything, and eventually they disappeared. I was able to pick out one Black-bellied Plover but could not find the Wilson's Phalarope nor the Golden-Plover that were reported yesterday. My consolation prize was a pair of BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS seen foraging in the short grass at the edge of the mud, way off to the east, up against the loosestrife. They would flush along with the other shorebirds as the falcons passed, but then return to exactly the same spot to continue feeding. Bob McGuire -- 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/ --
