I want to clarify that regarding the breeding plumage Dowitcher which Ann found at Benning and identified as Long-billed, my writing was sloppy and ambiguous, therefore inadvertently hurtful, for which I apologize. I did not at all intend to impugn her ability to observe or ID it. I referred to my own difficulty identifying this, like most adult Dowitchers, to species, so I was unable to corroborate her ID. I could neither agree nor disagree with her. Adult Dowitchers are far trickier to me than are juvenile Night-Herons, which I have studied a bit during the last 2 weeks.
In my opinion Ann's a really good birder: observant, knowledgeable, and quick, as well as fun and helpful. Frequently she finds birds which I would have overlooked (case in point). It is common when birding together for us to each glimpse a bit of a bird and blurt out the same ID at the same time. Sometimes there's some discussion involved before we agree. Sometimes only one of us observes a bird well enough to ID it. Rarely do we disagree about an ID. We help each other, but we also try to observe and judge independently, and we keep separate lists, which was reflected in my report. I was also remiss in neglecting to specifically thank Ann for her great help on this field trip finding and pointing out birds and teaching other participants, in addition to making a scouting trip to various places including Morgan Road on Thursday when I was unable to do so. Plus she lent me a hat when the sun finally broke through. --Dave Nutter On Aug 13, 2016, at 08:49 PM, Dave Nutter <nutter.d...@me.com> wrote: This morning I led a shorebird trip starting at 7am at the Montezuma NWR Visitor Center. Next Saturday (20 Aug) Dave Nicosia will lead a trip starting at the same time (7am) & place (Visitor Center off NYS-5/US-20). Our group was initially comprised of 5 experienced birders with 4 scopes, the small child of a birder who was content to stand around with a small pair of binoculars, plus a family of 6. This family lacked optics or a field guide. Whole categories of birds were completely new to them. Yet they were curious enough to get up at 5am to leave Rochester and make a considerable detour to spend most of their morning with us before going to a family gathering. Either they had a pretty good time, or they were incredibly polite, probably both. I hope they come back next week. We all shared sightings, optics, and information with them. I hope they come back, whether or not they remember to bring their pair of binoculars. On the Wildlife Drive, the Seneca Slough near the start was nicely productive. The river had risen enough since Sunday that it connected to the puddles in the slough, which hosted 4 species of shorebirds: a Killdeer, a Spotted Sandpiper (which lacked spots but was bobbing its rear end), a Solitary Sandpiper, and a Lesser Yellowlegs. Also a fox ran across the far end. At stops along the Main Pool we added a perched adult Bald Eagle, families of Common Gallinules and Pied-billed Grebes, the rare summering Ring-necked Duck, several Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Herons, Caspian Terns, Ring-billed Gulls, Eastern Kingbirds, Cedar Waxwings, and eclipse Mallards. A few of us also noted a couple of Blue-winged Teal, some distant American Coots and Wood Ducks, a couple distant Northern Harriers, a juvenile Song Sparrow, a probable Willow Flycatcher, and various swallows. We added Greater Yellowlegs at Eaton Marsh. At Benning, Scott Peterson found a Wilson's Snipe, Ann Mitchell found a breeding plumage Dowitcher which she considered to be Long-billed (I was, as usual, not confident with this speciation), and I found a few Least Sandpipers. There was also a cooperative eclipse Wood Duck here. Having done the Wildlife Drive with us, the family went on their way. The rest of us continued to Mays Point Pool where we met two birders who were on last week's field trip: a Brit and his local friend. Mays Point Pool has dried out considerably. The only shorebirds we saw were a single Lesser Yellowlegs and a few Killdeer, but they were fairly close and in the open because the shallows and wet mud were only near the channel along the dike. >From here we followed recent reports and made the bold move away from the >National Wildlife Refuge and toward Morgan Road near the DEC offices in >Savannah. In theory there's a boat ramp here into the narrower and shallower >branch of the Seneca River which flows around the west side of Howland Island >and, to its south, Hog Island. In practice there is a convenient, if weedy, >parking area for a few cars next to a long broad swath of shallow water strewn >with algae, small mud bars, and newly emergent grasses and cattails. We were >greeted by a considerable flock of Least Sandpipers spiced with Semipalmated >Sandpipers and Plovers, plus a single Baird's Sandpiper. This Baird's was more unambiguous than the one I reported from Benning a couple weeks back. For one thing, it didn't spend all its time in an odd position preening. It had the typical long, horizontal shape of a Baird's, with a narrow taper to the rear including wingtips crossed over the tail, not blunt-ended like a football or smaller peep species. Compared to the grayish Semipalmated Sandpipers, whose faces and throats were conspicuously paler, the Baird's was larger and taller, and its head, neck and breast were almost completely a smooth tan. It had black legs. This Baird's, a juvenile instead of a molting adult, also had a warm brown back whose every feather was narrowly edged buffy, creating a uniform scaly appearance. When a young Northern Harrier came between us and the peep flock, they moved a bit farther away. Some, including the Baird's, hid around a bend in the "river". We tried walking a short distance south along a nearby dike, but soon saw that it provided no better vantage. However, in walking from the boat ramp parking area toward the DEC buildings we had a different view of the pond between Morgan and Carncross Roads. On a little bit of mud which was relatively close to the DEC parking lot yet hidden from it by tall cattails, wonderfully lit by the sun behind us, we found a fine collection of shorebirds: two or three each of Killdeer, Semipalmated Plovers, Lesser Yellowlegs, Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, and singles of Solitary Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, and Short-billed Dowitcher. The dowitcher was particularly lovely to me. Not only did it have a golden wash across the breast and a warm glow over its back from fresh, bright-edged feathers, but its tertials had diagnostic black and orange barring. Although this bird was gray on the face and neck, it was not overall cool in tone nor so extensively grayish as a juvenile Long-billed. The positive ID of a dowitcher to species is a wonderful thing. --Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics Rules and Information Subscribe, Configuration and Leave Archives: The Mail Archive Surfbirds BirdingOnThe.Net Please submit your observations to 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/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/ --