In the middle of this warm afternoon Ann Mitchell & I visited Montezuma NWR's Knox-Marsellus Marsh, viewing from East Rd. There were huge numbers of shorebirds. I estimated three thousand DUNLIN. But the heat shimmer was a problem, so we left and returned when the light was more behind us and the ground wasn't being heated so much. At 5:30pm conditions were better for scoping the distant shorebirds in shallow waters and wet or moist mud. There were at least 15 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS in various plumages, several each of SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS, and LEAST SANDPIPERS, and 2 GREATER YELLOWLEGS. Ann also discovered a WILSON'S PHALAROPE, pot-bellied and very white running drunkenly and pecking randomly at the water's surface among a flock of sedately feeding Dunlin. As we showed it to other birders it kept moving, then it flushed along with all the nearby Dunlin. I refound a pale (male) Wilson's Phalarope only to have it walk up to another with a dark mark on the side of the upper neck (a female). They stood erect and walked tight circles around each other for a minute before resuming their odd foraging mode. Then I noticed 2 more males, for 4 Wilson's Phalaropes in the same view. This is the most I've encountered at once around here, and a great way to end a full day of birding, which included finding the adult GLOSSY IBIS in Larue's Lagoon along the Wildlife Drive. This was very fortunate, because Bob McGuire said (I think - bad phone connection) that he saw it in the Main Pool, which could have made it far harder to find or see well.
--Dave Nutter -- 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/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
