The drought has created low water levels in the WMA impoundments. The Howland Island impoundment that was reported to have so many shorebirds a week or so ago is now dry enough that there were no shorebirds there yesterday, but there were 14 sandhill cranes.
I did find a mass of shorebirds using the exposed mud flats in the Seneca River right at the boat launch and access point at the end of Morgan Rd. eBird checklist is pasted below. Michael R. Wasilco Regional Wildlife Manager, Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources New York State Department of Environmental Conservation 6274 E. Avon-Lima Rd., Avon, NY 14414 P: (585)226-5460 | F: (585) 226-6323 | mike.wasi...@dec.ny.gov www.dec.ny.gov<http://www.dec.ny.gov/> | [cid:image002.gif@01D01928.215FD820] <https://www.facebook.com/NYSDEC> | [cid:image001.gif@01D01927.D33C0790] <https://twitter.com/NYSDEC> Montezuma (NMWMA)--Morgan Rd. boat launch, Wayne, New York, US Aug 10, 2016 2:12 PM - 2:58 PM Protocol: Stationary Comments: Most birds were in Seneca River on flats at end of access lane and boat launch.<br />Submitted from eBird Android 1.2.5 28 species Wood Duck 6 Mallard 2 Great Blue Heron 6 Great Egret 2 Turkey Vulture 10 Common Gallinule 5 Semipalmated Plover 3 Killdeer 2 Sanderling 1 Baird's Sandpiper 1 Medium sandpiper, comparable to adjacent white-rumped, but thinner and more rufous with buffy breast band. Wing tips extend beyond tail. Least Sandpiper 120 White-rumped Sandpiper 12 Pectoral Sandpiper 1 Semipalmated Sandpiper 140 Solitary Sandpiper 2 Lesser Yellowlegs 3 Ring-billed Gull 2 Caspian Tern 1 Belted Kingfisher 1 Eastern Kingbird 1 American Crow 1 Purple Martin 5 Barn Swallow 4 Gray Catbird 1 European Starling 38 Cedar Waxwing 7 Song Sparrow 3 House Sparrow 2 View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31046026 This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org -- 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/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --