Had a chance to stop by Montezuma for a few hours on the way back from Rochester around midday with my girl friend. Unfortunately, this is the worst time for scoping because of heat shimmer. Wildlife drive has dried out a lot. We were able to pick out a distant breeding plumage DUNLIN and SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER to the left not far up from Larue's. Then not far from the carp crossing we were fortunate to have a flock of shorebirds land not too far away that there were no shimmer issues. Most of the birds were SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS (about 45). There were also about 5 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS, 1 breeding plumage DUNLIN and a WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER. This bird stood out being larger and more evenly or neatly striped in the upper breast. dark legs. I also was able to see the orangish tinge to the base of the lower mandible well. The birds primaries were only slightly past the tail. The semipalmated sandpipers nearby were smaller and less neatly striped and had more "fuzzy" marking in the upper breasts to the sides. I also saw a distant SPOTTED SANDPIPER and heard it too. There were 3 BLACK TERNS flying around on the back of the marsh to the left.
At Knox-Marcellus, the lighting and shimmer were awful. I knew it would be this way but this was the only time I could get there this week. I didn't see thousands of shorebirds, probably only a few hundred. I could id DUNLIN, BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS, SEMIPALAMATED PLOVERS, YELLOWLEGS sp. and SPOTTED SANDPIPER and KILLDEER both by call. I estimated only 200-300 birds. There were also 3 CASPIAN TERNS and 6 BLACK TERNS. Otherwise, others have seen much more that I had. I wish I could have been there either much earlier from Towpath or later from East Rd. Dave Nicosia -- 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/ --
