I spent 7 hours Sunday morning touring the Perch River WMA in Jefferson County. I started at the parking area on Rt 12, then made a circle around the property by driving down Vaadi Rd to Dog Hill Rd to Perch Lake Rd and finished my day at the end of Cooke Rd. I made multiple stops along the way, and spent a considerable amount of time at the observation tower overlooking Stone Mills Pool on Vaadi Rd.
Highlights from the day included: --- Least Bittern seen flying across the marsh on the east side of Vaadi Rd near the car top boat launch area. --- watching an adult Bald Eagle fly over the Lower Pool and quickly develop a Black Tern tail that grew to 23 birds long. --- watching a female Blue-winged Warbler collecting insects in the field below me while I stood on the tower, then fly across the road to hopefully feed some nestlings. --- 2 singing Henslow’s Sparrows on Dog Hill Rd. --- 1 Grasshopper Sparrow on Dog Hill Rd. --- 1 juvenile Barred Owl, first heard calling and then seen very well just a hundred feet or so in the woods. The complete eBird checklist is copied below: Perch River WMA, Jefferson, US-NY Jun 29, 2014 7:10 AM - 2:10 PM Protocol: Traveling 16.0 mile(s) Comments: made a loop around Perch River WMA, starting at the parking area on Rt 12, then turning onto Vaadi Rd, stopping at the observation tower for a bit, then up to Dog Hill Rd, then down Perch Lake Rd, stopping at the road to Perch Lake, then continuing down to Cooke Rd. The numbers below are totaled from the entire trip. 79 species Canada Goose 37 several family groups and a few non-breeders Wood Duck 97 multiple family groups counted along with many solo males Mallard 16 Green-winged Teal 1 one adult male on Stone Mills Pool from observation tower Wild Turkey 1 Pied-billed Grebe 4 American Bittern 4 2 flyovers at Lower Pool, 1 at Stone Mill Pond, 1 seen from Cooke Rd Least Bittern 1 seen in flight over the marsh near the Vaadi Rd car top boat launch Great Blue Heron 6 only counted adults seen around the WMA. Did not count the multitudes in the nests at the heronry on Stone Mills Pool on Vaadi Rd. Green Heron 4 Black-crowned Night-Heron 2 Turkey Vulture 2 Osprey 4 pair at nest in Stone Mills Pool, seen from observation tower, plus 2 others Northern Harrier 1 Bald Eagle 2 1 adult with a tail of 23 Black Terns over Lower Pool, 1 immature over Perch Lake Red-tailed Hawk 1 Common Gallinule 8 6 at Stone Mills Pool, including 1 small youngster American Coot 1 Stone Mills Pool from observation tower Killdeer 1 Wilson's Snipe 1 Ring-billed Gull 10 Caspian Tern 10 Black Tern 25 23 were counted following and harassing an adult Bald Eagle as it flew over the Lower Pool, observed from the parking area on Rt 12. Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 4 Mourning Dove 9 Barred Owl 1 Belted Kingfisher 1 Downy Woodpecker 2 American Kestrel 4 family group on wires on Perch Lake Rd near Cooke Rd Eastern Wood-Pewee 3 Alder Flycatcher 1 Eastern Phoebe 3 Great Crested Flycatcher 2 Eastern Kingbird 7 Yellow-throated Vireo 1 Warbling Vireo 4 Red-eyed Vireo 5 Blue Jay 3 American Crow 3 Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1 Tree Swallow 16 Barn Swallow 8 Black-capped Chickadee 5 White-breasted Nuthatch 2 House Wren 3 Marsh Wren X Veery 3 Wood Thrush 5 American Robin 12 Gray Catbird 12 Brown Thrasher 5 European Starling X Cedar Waxwing 16 Ovenbird 1 Blue-winged Warbler 2 one female gathering food at the observation tower on Vaadi Rd, plus another singing male along Cooke Rd Black-and-white Warbler 1 Common Yellowthroat 41 American Redstart 9 Yellow Warbler 12 Chestnut-sided Warbler 3 Eastern Towhee 2 Chipping Sparrow X Savannah Sparrow 6 Grasshopper Sparrow 1 singing from second parking area on Dog Hill Rd, when coming from Vaadi Rd Henslow's Sparrow 2 easily heard singing from first parking area along Dog Hill Rd, when coming from Vaadi Rd. Surprised to see this number flagged as a high count, since this is a known breeding location. Song Sparrow 22 Swamp Sparrow X Scarlet Tanager 1 Northern Cardinal 2 Rose-breasted Grosbeak 3 Indigo Bunting 2 Bobolink 9 along Dog Hill Rd Red-winged Blackbird X Eastern Meadowlark 8 5 along Dog Hill Rd Common Grackle 7 Brown-headed Cowbird 2 Baltimore Oriole 5 includes one family group of 4, plus another solo male American Goldfinch 18 House Sparrow X View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18948804 This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org) Mickey Scilingo Constantia Oswego County, NY [email protected] 315-679-6299 -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
