I spent my morning birding around the Cayuga/Wayne County line near Lake Ontario, with a migrant WHIMBREL being the highlight for the day.
I was birding along the West Bay Beach in Fair Haven in Cayuga County, just on the western side of Little Sodus Bay, when I heard a series of 7-10 short, repeated notes over and over again. It took me a few seconds to realize I was hearing the call of a Whimbrel. I followed the sound to eventually find the bird doing circles over the lake, looking as if it wanted to land. I watched it for a few minutes as it circled around, but instead of landing, it just kind of straightened out its path and headed south over the bay. Aside from the Whimbrel, the only other notable migrants I saw here were a few YELLOW WARBLERS. In Wayne County, driving west along Kakat Rd, some highlights included a GREEN HERON, a Red-Tailed Hawk on the ground mantling some prey alongside the road, and an immature BALD EAGLE overhead. I drove to the end of Broadway Rd and found 2 more juvenile eagles soaring over the lakeshore....and then 2 more.... for a total of 5 young Bald Eagles flying together. They stayed in the general area just cruising overhead, not really going anywhere but just enjoying riding the breeze off the lake. I backtracked east on Kakat Rd to take the next road that headed north to the lake - Howland Rd, and found an adult Bald Eagle perched in a tree along the lake shore about 1/4 mile west of the end of the road. This strengthened my suspicion that there must be a nest somewhere nearby. Its amazing to see how well this species has recovered in this sate. Also, a SPOTTED SANDPIPER literally jumped out into the road in front of me and led me 0.3 miles down the road (at speeds up to 17 MPH) before finally veering off back into the grass. Another family saved, I guess - although I would think it is a bit late for that. Who knows? I next visited the Black Creek Marsh Unit of the Lakeshore Marshes WMA at the end of Fields Hill Rd. There was a trail of beaten down vegetation from where some vehicles had gone around the barrier posts designed to keep them out, so I followed it north for a bit. About 700 feet down the makeshift path I came to an area near where a tree had fallen down, and found a nice pocket of birds, including 3 HOUSE WRENS, several CHICKADEES, an OVENBIRD, a BROWN CREEPER, 3 TOWHEES (including one kinda ugly looking juvenile), a CATBIRD, 3 COMMON YELLOWTHROATS, a PEWEE, 2 CARDINALS, a DOWNY WOODPECKER, a BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER, a HUMMINGBIRD and 2 CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLERS. On the way home, I drove past the pony farm on Lamson Rd in Lysander (Onondaga County). There were 2 KILLDEER and 1 PECTORAL SANDPIPER near the pond, and 8 more KILLDEER spread out in the grass. At the State Fair parking lots in Syracuse I counted 43 KILLDEER and 0 Golden-Plovers. Mickey Scilingo North Syracuse Onondaga County, NY mickey.scili...@gte.net 315-679-6299 -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
