SHORT & SAFE SUMMARY: On Tuesday, I saw 6-8 shorebirds about 15-21in tall with thin bodies and 3 shorter sandpiper-shaped birds standing on the ice shelf out about 80 yards near the big dead tree on the Taughannok beach Tuesday. Today (Wednesday), they were all gone, but I did see an interesting new bird with black wing-tips, dry sand color on back, white belly. It came close at one point, then stayed about 120 yards away. I watched it fly like a gull, but then it would swoop all the way down to the ice as if to land and then suddenly swoop up, circling around and then repeating the pattern over and over, never resting in the 20 minutes I observe it. I have seen insects around, and it was about 45F; so they might have been hunting for insects. One came by closer to me, and I estimated it was a size about half of a Herring Gull or 11 inches. After I recorded all of this, I looked again and noticed there were many of these birds all up and down the lake doing the same thing, all spaced out hundreds of yards apart. Then when I drove back home, stopping at the yacht club, I saw a huge raft of birds (hundreds if not thousands) of a very white colored bird on the east shore side, just under where that Lansing gym is, but I could not see what they were. By the way, I am sad to report that many of the birds we saw on Sunday, including the Tufted Duck were not there.
RARE BIRD SIGHTING DETAILS: Today, Wednesday, 3/11/15 I went back to Taughannok Marina today to do a "redo" of yesterday, but the shorebirds I observed Tuesday were gone with perhaps a new arrival or two. Tuesday, 3/10/15 Taughannok Marina/beaches, 12:30-2:15pm, near the huge dead Sycamore tree "log." 6-8 shorebirds way out from beach looking east (about 80 yards with binoculars only, no scope). It was sunny, and the shimmer was behind the birds. Behavior: These birds alternated between standing on an ice shelf and swimming. They stayed close together most of the time as they swam and as they got onto the ice, and then I saw six fly north, two stayed and swam around together within a small diameter among the many waterfowl. Later the six returned to join them. Size/shape/coloration: Height was half the size of the Canadian Goose (30-43")...so 15-21" Slim build, needle-like bill, stilt-like legs, long necks, black heads, wet sand pattern on back (gorgeous), white breast My first thought was Long-tailed Duck because of the pointy tails. I looked up the duck, and the colors did not match nor did the bill even come close. The angle of the bill was almost parallel to the tail. There appeared to be two tails which I sketched as two parallel black lines. After I sketched the bird, I looked up waders and narrowed it down to phalaropes based on angle and length of bill and the two dark lines of the tail being almost parallel with the bill. While the average arrival date for WILSON'S PHALAROPE is in May, I looked on Steve Kelling's "bar graph list of arrival dates for shorebirds," and I see there has been at least one rare visit in mid March, but I neglected to consider height. The height I observed was half of a Canadian Goose, so that leads me to GREATER YELLOWLEGS, which also has been recorded in midMarch more so. However, the photos I looked at online do not look like what I saw. The birds I saw had a more erect head when standing and when swimming and longer-looking neck as a result and they had black heads. So I'm sticking with WILSON'S PHALAROPE.. The birds standing next to these birds could have been DUNLINS (which seem a bit tall at 8 1/2 in, but a SANDERLING at 8 inches or SEMIPALMATED PLOVER at 6 1/4in do not have any March dates on record), yet their colors match more of what I saw for the flyby birds who followed a similar flight path as the Killdeer who flew by 5-10 minutes earlier. The 3 shorter shorebirds that hung out with the 6-8 taller shorebirds were still there. Unfortunately, all of these birds were gone when I returned today (Wednesday at 4pm). The flyby birds who followed the Killdeer were Barn-Swallow size (6 3/4 in.), and they had gorgeous patterned sand-colored backs with a strong white stripe on the lower part of the wings. My sketch makes the bird look humming-bird-like, and I see in my guidebook that the white stripe marks on the back of a plover match best what I saw. The color of the back side was dry sand, and the pattern was gorgeous (don't know how to sketch the gorgeous patterns, especially in a flyby!!! but they flew by less than 30 feet over my head; so I got a nice look. I now think these may have been DUNLINS (8 1/2-8 3/4 in) based on height and bill shape and breeding plumage or BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER....but I really do not know! So I hope someone up north will see these gorgeous creatures!!! Tuesday, 3/10/15 Upper Taughannok, 11am-noon RE-DO of the misreport of a vulture sighting: I saw an all-black bird soar back and forth across the gorge a few times. It mostly soared and looked left and right. The shape was vulture-like. It was about twice the size of a crow, and the crows protested when it flew near them. They stopped calling when it flew back toward me and another person standing nearby who insisted it was a Black Vulture. When it flew close overhead, the sun shine through and saw a dark brown with rich tones. I did a google image-search of flying ravens which revealed the dark brown tones I saw on its underbelly and through its flight feathers when it flew overhead with the sun shining through; bingo! And then I recalled that there was a RAVEN report around Taughannok Inn! Thanks for everyone's passion for birds and patience with us newbies!!! -- 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/ --
