thanks Dave for this alert, and sorry for not posting or texting earlier. On a quick evening trip to Montezuma, there was a surprising amount of bird activity along the Wildlife drive — many, many COMMON GALLINULE families, BLACK TERNS flying over the main pool, the now-expected LEAST BITTERNS flying and calling, etc.
Chris Wood picked out the SEDGE WREN calling softly in tall grass on the right side of the drive, at the first pullout north of Larue’s Lagoon. In response to pushing it flew up briefly from the grass and disappeared again. It was giving only the soft “chrrt” call that is most similar to Marsh Wren’s call, and I don’t think I would have picked that bird out. We then learned that Andy Guthrie had found 2 Sedge Wrens the previous day on East Rd. When we arrived at East Rd. we heard a SEDGE WREN giving more typical calls and partial song — near the “crest” of the road in tall grass on east side of road. Then I thought I heard a second bird, which came in very close in response to playback of Sedge Wren — but it turned out to be a juvenile MARSH WREN, with barely any eyeliner or back streaks. A second juvenile Marsh Wren was nearby, and a third bird calling farther away could have been either species. In my previous experience with Sedge Wrens (mostly in winter in Louisiana), I am less familiar with the drier Marsh Wren-like call note these birds were giving, and may have overlooked some in the past. We were also surprised to see Marsh Wrens in the tall dry grass far from the marsh (although I have seen migrants in alfalfa fields and other grassy vegetation). So beware of Sedge Wren sound-alikes and look-alikes in this area! There were surprisingly few birds in the Knox-Marcellus impoundments, although a group of 8 adult BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS accompanied by 2 early juvenile RUDDY TURNSTONES were nice. As the sky blackened with an approaching storm, a tight flock of shorebirds flew in and landed in the back of the impoundment, and these turned out to be STILT SANDPIPERS — more and more flew in and joined them, and we got a rough count of 58 just as a hard blowing rain began to fall, and our birding was over. KEN Kenneth V. Rosenberg Conservation Science Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology Office: 607-254-2412 cell: 607-342-4594 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> On Aug 15, 2014, at 4:38 AM, Dave Nutter <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: An hour or so later Ken also reported at least 1 on East Rd, also part of the National Wildlife Refuge. I heard about these as 'hourly' rare bird alerts from eBird for Seneca County, both of which my computer got late last night. --Dave Nutter Sedge Wren (Cistothorus platensis) (1) - Reported Aug 14, 2014 18:20 by Ken Rosenberg - Montezuma NWR--East Road, Seneca, New York - Map: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&q=43.0095428,-76.7585778&ll=43.0095428,-76.7585778 - Checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S19472002 - Comments: "1 singing briefly; another possibly calling but juv marsh wren confusing" On Aug 15, 2014, at 04:25 AM, Dave Nutter <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Yesterday evening between 5 & 6pm it appears that Chris Wood & Ken Rosenberg found a SEDGE Wren along the Wildlife Drive. To me this would have been worthy of a text-message RBA, but not worth me waking people up for it 11 hours later. As someone who can't get there until the weekend, I'm asking that people not scare it off. Did you know that playback is not allowed on the National Wildlife Refuge? --Dave Nutter Begin forwarded message: From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Date: August 14, 2014 10:31:20 PM To: Undisclosed recipients: ; Subject: [eBird Alert] Seneca Rare Bird Alert <hourly> Sedge Wren (Cistothorus platensis) (1) - Reported Aug 14, 2014 17:06 by Chris Wood - Montezuma NWR--Wildlife Drive, Seneca, New York - Map: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&q=42.9817483,-76.7353284&ll=42.9817483,-76.7353284 - Checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S19471766 - Comments: "Just north of LaRues lagoon. Giving jjjjjt call notes. Seen in flight and perched in grasses. Called several times. Adult." *********** -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- 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/ --
