I birded Cayuga Lake and Montezuma NWR this morning with Sahas Barve
and Ben Freeman. At the Aurora Lake Road Bluffs, we had a flock of 25
WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS and ~75 COMMON LOONS. The Visitor's Center,
Larue's Lagoon, and the main pool were mostly devoid of birds. 4
EASTERN BLUEBIRDS flew over the HQ. There were 14 SWANS on the Main
Pool. I called them TRUMPETER at the time, not realizing until later
that TUNDRA SWANS had arrived in force. I probably should have given
them all a better look. There were large duck flocks flying around
farther back than the open main pool, scared around by Bald Eagles. At
Benning Marsh, there was a flock of 37 DUNLIN with 2 SEMIPALMATED
SANDPIPER and one late (according to eBIrd filters) juvenile
WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER. We also had 5 TREE SPARROWS around here. May's
Point had about 36 SWANS, almost all sleeping and left unidentified.
We didn't see any shorebirds there.
Towpath was certainly the most interesting stop today. Knox-Marcellus
had at least 400 TUNDRA SWANS and some possible Trumpeters, assorted
dabbling ducks, 8 GREATER SCAUP, 25 COMMON MERGANSERS, 3 RUDDY DUCKs,
and 1 PIED-BILLED GREBE. In Puddler's, there was a flock of 5 PECTORAL
SANDPIPERS and 4 DUNLIN. I really nicely asked a particularly small,
bright juvenile Pectoral to turn into a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, but it
wouldn't. There were 1000+ SNOW GEESE in view at Puddler's, among
which I found one juvenile ROSS'S GOOSE. Before I could get the others
on it, another 1000+ SNOW GEESE flew in from foraging in the
mucklands, and the whole group rose out of Puddler's and moved back
over to K-M. We didn't rescan them for more Ross's. Sahas and Ben had
a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK that I missed. We had some flyover flocks of PIPIT
and HORNED LARKS. We had 5 SANDHILL CRANES visible from East Road in
Knox-Marcellus.
On Armitage Road at the intersection with East Rd, we suddenly found
ourselves in the epicenter of a massive swirling blackbird
extravaganza. There were swirling masses in the air, constant streams
of birds from one wood patch to another, and flocks of birds moving in
the fields. Birds were crossing over the road in groups of 1000s. The
streams of birds into the wood patches north, east, and southwest of
this intersection were just packing into the trees and undergrowth,
filling it with birds. We very roughly estimated 30,000 birds, with
roughly a 60:30:10 split between Starlings, Common Grackles, and
Red-winged Blackbirds. There was also at least one Brown-headed
Cowbird. I scanned the trees for any Rusty's but did not find any. The
swirling masses of birds were occasionally disturbed by several hawks
in the area. The weirdest thing was, when we drove back through this
area just 10 minutes later, after scanning from the Potato Building
for Lark and Bunting flocks (none seen), the 30,000 blackbirds had
completely vanished.
We drove back down the west side of Cayuga, but barely saw any more
birds. Highlight was one female WHITE-WINGED SCOTER swimming close
together with one female LONG-TAILED DUCK at Sheldrake, right close to
shore to the north. There was also at least 7 BLACK DUCKS and 9
BUFFLEHEAD, along with several COMMON LOONS, south of Sheldrake on CR
153.
Good Birding,
Nick
--
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/
--
