Went with my birding pal Melissa Penta to Knox-Marcellus Marsh and viewed from East Road. We arrived around 5 pm and stayed for a little over 2 hours. The viewing conditions were good with little if any heat shimmer. Lighting of course was very good. The mosquitoes however were brutal!!!!!
One highlights was a flock of AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVERS that flew in after we had been there for about an hour or so. We counted 16 at first, but when they took off after 30 minutes or so we counted 22 as they flew almost directly over us across east road!! The birds were in various stages of molt. There was one that still was in a ragged-looking breeding plumage. These birds had smaller heads than the black-bellied and thinner bills with a very prominent white stripe above the eye. In addition, many of these birds were stretching their wings on the ground and you could see the armpits were light and of course when they flew over you could see all were light. We did find 4 more on the ground of which were joined, for a short time, by a BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. This guy was more plump, bigger head and thicker bill and when he took off... blackish armpits. Very nice to see both species together. The AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN continues and we found a gorgeous EURASIAN WIGEON among AMERICAN WIGEONS with a very cinnamonish face and very faint stripe down the forehead. NORTHERN SHOVELERS are back now along with many BLUE-WINGED and GREEN-WINGED TEAL. There were 4 SANDHILL CRANES and many waders, and CASPIAN TERNS among the usual gulls. No black terns today. I imagine most have departed by now. There was one BALD EAGLE, one gorgeous young NORTHERN HARRIER and 2 PEREGRINE FALCONs Then, after searching a while, the WHIMBREL finally came out! We were there almost 2 hours before he finally showed up. He was seen well from east road to the right of the purple loosestrife. He was mainly feeding by the edge of a ponded area most of the time until it was almost dark. The number of shorebirds is down from last visit with yellowlegs species the most common followed by semipalmated sandpipers and least sandpiper. There were still a fair number of pectoral sandpipers too. I did not find baird's this evening or white-rumped. Dowitcher species continue. I heard a short-billed for sure but all of the dowitchers I saw were in their duller non-breeding plumage so not sure exactly which of the 2 species they were. I did not hear any long-billed calls. I counted 11 STILT SANDPIPERs. There were also a few SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS which is much less than last time and several KILLDEER. I did not find any phalaropes this evening. No godwits either. Keep in mind that the last two evenings that I came up to Montezuma, godwits were found the very next morning!! First it was the single marbled godwit.... then the large flock of hudsonian's. So tomorrow should yield a bar-tailed for those lucky enough to go up!!!! Good Birding to all!! Dave -- 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/ --
