If you haven’t taken the time to search out the Roseate Spoonbill, Wood Stork, and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks at Montezuma, it appears that there is still time. All three species were seen this afternoon from East Road overlooking Knox-Marsellus Marsh. Granted that the views were distant for several of them, and a scope was absolutely necessary for the ducks.
I went up today, mainly to scout the shorebird habitat and found that K-M Marsh is just about the only accessible spot in the Montezuma Complex. There were a few Yellowlegs in Eaton Marsh and a few peeps along the channel that drains the Main Pool in the Refuge, but other favorite sites such as Mays Pool and Carncross Road were either overgrown with miscellaneous vegetation or had been drawn down. K-M Marsh had a large group of Yellowlegs, about evenly split between Greater and Lesser. In addition there were over 20 Sandhill Cranes, close to 200 Great Egrets and nearly that many Great Blue Herons, plus an assortment of ducks, Pied-billed Grebes, Caspian Terns, gulls, Double-crested Cormorants and a few Bald Eagles. I also heard reports from the morning that Sora and Least Bittern were seen from Towpath Road. Next Saturday begins the series of dike walks at K-M Marsh (see the Cayuga Bird Club FB page for information: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cayugabirdclub). This will be a great opportunity to get close to the shorebirds and, hopefully the rare birds mentioned above. Bob McGuire -- 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/ --
