[cayugabirds-l] Least Bitterns, Red-headed Woodpeckers, etc.

[Dave Nutter]

Coping with a bout of literal Empty Nest Syndrome, I joined Ann Mitchell for a 
birding trip to Montezuma NWR this morning. 

Our first stop was the Myers/Salt Point/Ladoga Park area where we saw 1 each 
Spotted, Least, and Semipalmated Sandpiper on the Myers spit, at least 2 Green 
Herons, a possible family group of 4 Belted Kingfishers, and 3 large nestling 
Ospreys at Salt Point, and the male Redhead off Ladoga, but we failed to find 
any orioles nor the recent male White-winged Scoter. 

At Montezuma NWR we took advantage of the new temporary policy regarding the 
Wildlife Drive. For the first time in many years, this year bicycling and 
walking are permitted, but only from 12 July to 15 August. The reasoning as I 
understand it is that nesting is generally over by mid-July but the influx of 
migrant waterfowl doesn't begin until mid-August, and refuge manager(s) at 
Montezuma fear that people walking or bicycling on the Wildlife Drive would 
disturb those birds' activities, even though walking and bicycling are allowed 
on similar drives at other National Wildlife Refuges year-round. Southbound 
shorebird migration, however, is underway starting in early July, and they are 
generally not bothered by people, so refuge managers are not concerned about 
them. Shorebirds' tolerance may have to do with people in this part of the 
world not shooting at them much anymore, in contrast to waterfowl, or managers' 
abundance of caution regarding the migrant waterfowl may be an over-reaction. 
In my experience around Cayuga Lake, as pedestrians, bike riders, or people 
outside of their motor vehicles, we can get good views of various migrant 
waterfowl calmly going about their business when & where there is not active 
shooting. 

Anyway, this policy is a great start, in my opinion, and Ann & I enjoyed 
walking out along the left side, which is now covered in finer gravel, a.k.a. 
stone dust, and is more pleasant to walk and bike upon. I wish the whole 
Wildlife Drive used that surface, because it is far quieter! We went as far as 
the Seneca Flats area where we saw many Ring-billed Gulls, 9 Caspian Terns, a 
Great Egret, 2 Green Herons, a Killdeer, a Greater Yellowlegs, 3 Lesser 
Yellowlegs, 3 Pectoral Sandpipers, and several Semipalmated and Least 
Sandpipers in addition to the local Canada Goose families and eclipse Mallards. 
Plus in the air there were many swallows (mainly Tree), a couple of immature 
Bald Eagles, a non-breeding plumage Black Tern, and several distant Ospreys. In 
the marsh along our way we also saw families of Common Gallinules (and even 
watched an adult vocalizing), saw and heard Willow Flycatchers and Swamp 
Sparrows, and heard one calling Virginia Rail and numerous persistently 
invisible singing Marsh Wrens and. 

When we were alongside Larue's Lagoon a car pulled up alongside us on the 
drive. It was driven by Dave Kennedy, whom everyone on this list serve should 
know as the finder and photographer of many wonderful birds in the north basin, 
such as Gyrfalcons, a backyard Rufous Hummingbird, etc. It's worth looking at 
any eBird checklists which he posts, just to enjoy his photos. I find them in 
my eBird Seneca County year needs and rare bird reports. Dave was talking to us 
about the new pedestrian policy on the Wildlife Drive. Ann told him how nice it 
was to be able to hear so much more outside of a vehicle. I generally hear at 
least twice as many birds when I'm outside a vehicle, because the engine makes 
noise, the wheels make noise (especially on the Wildlife Drive's gravel!), and 
the cabin generally blocks a great deal of bird sound, even with the windows 
open. I started to tell him about how wonderful it was to see the entire sky, 
and Dave jokingly gave me a hard time for my arm gesture because it might scare 
birds. Then he told us about a LEAST BITTERN which he noticed moving in the 
cattails behind us on the opposite side of the channel. Even though we had been 
looking for this species, and thought we knew what to look for, Dave had to get 
out of his car and point it out to us. He took a few pictures and went on his 
way. Meanwhile, the bird stayed in view for many minutes while we enjoyed it. 
We photographed it in various positions as it perched atop a cattail fruit 
(what do you call that cylindrical brown thing?). We told occupants of another 
passing car about it, and they got out, saw it through our scopes (a life bird 
for at least one of them), and took their own photos including some in flight 
when the bird finally a short distance moved off to another part of the marsh. 
This was a wonderful experience, one of my best sightings of the species, and a 
year bird as well, and it was made possible by the new policy allowing people 
out of their cars on the Wildlife Drive. Later on I had a second glimpse of a 
Least Bittern briefly flying just above the cattail tops. I'm pretty sure I 
would not have been able to see it from the lower vantage of my car's 

[cayugabirds-l] Ruff at Montezuma NWR yesterday

[Matthew Medler]

Hi All,

Last night, Tim Lenz, Bob McGuire, and I saw the RUFF that has been seen in the 
Montezuma area since Dave Nutter discovered it on Saturday, July 8. Like Dave, 
we saw the bird briefly at dusk at Eaton Marsh on the Montezuma NWR auto-loop. 
We had looked for the bird here and at Kips Island earlier in the evening, 
without success, but decided to return to Eaton Marsh at dusk in the hopes that 
it would join other roosting shorebirds there. Tim located the bird in amongst 
the many yellowlegs somewhere between 8:30 and 8:45, but shortly thereafter, 
the bird took flight with a few other shorebirds and left the area. Additional 
details, including a photo, can be found in Tim's eBird checklist:

https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S38232573

It's worth noting here that the bird looks considerably different than it did 
when it was first found. The bird's black ruff is gone, and the bird has a 
striking white neck, throat, and upper breast. 

Good birding,
Matt Medler
Ithaca

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Re: [cayugabirds-l] Question

[Asher Hockett]

The ranger station at FLNF Hector is sold out of Senior passes and will not
be getting any more before the price increase.


On Sat, Jul 15, 2017 at 12:15 PM, Peter  wrote:

> One last time for those who tend to come this way to bird the Refuge.
> Passes can be purchased at the Woman's Historic Park in Seneca Falls.
>
> Sar
>
> On 7/15/2017 11:54 AM, Peter wrote:
>
> Thanks folks.
>
> On 7/13/2017 1:39 PM, Asher Hockett wrote:
>
> You can purchase passes at:
>
> *Hector Ranger Station*
> 5218 State Route 414
> Hector, NY 14841
>
> On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 12:34 PM, Mike Pitzrick 
> wrote:
>
>> It looks like it would be a good idea to purchase a Senior Pass prior to
>> August 28, 2017.
>>
>> Changes to Senior Pass
>> 
>>
>> -Mike
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 12:28 PM, Judith Thurber 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I purchased mine at Wonderful Steamtiwn in Scranton but Ft Stanwix in
>>> Rome NY probably also sells them.  A bargain for sure.
>>>
>>> Judy Thurber, Liverpool
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>> > On Jul 13, 2017, at 10:51 AM, Peter  wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Might anyone know where one could purchase a Senior park pass to our
>>> National Parks? I got mine at the Refuge but am told they are no longer
>>> selling them.
>>> >
>>> > Much obliged.
>>> >
>>> > Pete Sar
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --
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>>
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Re: [cayugabirds-l] Hummingbird update

[Peter]

Thanks Dave. Cool.

Pete


On 7/19/2017 10:56 PM, Dave Nutter wrote:
> Remember that hummingbird nest I mentioned awhile back? I checked it 
> yesterday afternoon, and the 2 nestlings looked like actual birds. They were 
> well past the lizard stage with wrinkly round chameleon eyes and serrated 
> iguana ridges where pinfeathers were forming. They had grown real hummingbird 
> beaks. One youngster was nicely contoured with a green tint above and a 
> gray-speckled throat. The other looked a bit scruffier. It had all the 
> feathers but they were not as open or lying as neatly, and they were more 
> buff-tipped above. I could still see a bit of sheath on the outermost primary 
> of that one, but the wings were generally hidden from view due to the upward 
> viewing angle and the birds' position in the nest. Actually the nestlings 
> were more on than in the nest for the past several days, and yesterday I 
> could see a black-clawed pink toe gripping the rim.
>
> Standing side by side, they took turns exercising their wings behind the 
> other's back. "Scruffy" was curious, probing the nest with its bill, tasting 
> nearby leaves (including where they had defecated), and poking its sibling, 
> not in a mean way, but not random either. "Svelte" looked dignified, and 
> stayed still more, maybe having already done that exploration. Both tracked a 
> nearby flying insect with their bills. And when mama alit on the rim they 
> stretched up, and opened their rather dangerous bills to receive regurgitant 
> pumped deep inside them through an even more dangerous bill.
>
> I checked again this morning about 5:45 between taxi calls, but the leaves 
> were so droopy I couldn't see the nest in the sole sometimes-possible line of 
> sight. (On Monday I had also looked from the taxi just before a storm. Those 
> kids had quite a ride with the branch going up & down, but one of the leaves 
> acted as a wind screen for them.) I checked again today from the taxi at 
> 11:30am and finally got a view. The rim of the nest was an unbroken line, 
> although the youngsters haven't been able to hide inside the cup for days. I 
> got out for a closer look to double check. They were gone off into the wide 
> world.
>
> A bit more about this nest. It's on one of several branches drooping down 
> toward Fall Creek. It's not close enough to the water to be in danger from 
> flooding, but there are other risks. It's next to a popular fishing spot. 
> There's line tangled in an adjacent branch, and one time I arrived to find an 
> angler trying to yank free a line and hook caught in a different adjacent 
> branch, but shaking everything nearby. I mentioned to the angler that there 
> was a bird nest in there, and the person packed up and left, perhaps a bit 
> embarrassed at catching the tree instead of a fish. Meanwhile, I moved to the 
> one line of sight where I could view the nest, and it still had babies. 
> Perhaps that event was just another storm to them. Another time when I saw 
> someone move along the bank right next to the nest to fish, I pointed out the 
> nest and asked that they be extra careful, and that person obligingly moved a 
> bit farther away. It's true that the mama chose to nest there despite people 
> along the path and people fishing and canoeing, so the bird was clearly 
> somewhat tolerant of humans, but if it was going to get disturbed I didn't 
> want it to be birders' fault. The mama definitely noticed me when I was 
> close, so I was only close for limited periods and late in the nesting.
>
> Anyway, I apologize for not having shared the nest's location, and for being 
> vague to people on the path who asked what I was looking at. I feared that a 
> constant stream of birders trying to see and photograph it might be too much. 
> I made one exception. Melissa Groo, whom you all know as a wonderful 
> photographer, asked if she could discreetly try her hand, and I thought it 
> would be good to have high quality documentation, knowing that she would be 
> very careful. She made several visits despite a busy schedule and the fact 
> that the nest was frustratingly hard to view among the leaves. I also 
> documented the progress of the nesting, and my photography got better during 
> that six weeks. I hope to put together a more complete and illustrated story 
> which might be worthy of an article in the Cayuga Bird Club newsletter.
>
> --Dave Nutter
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RE: [cayugabirds-l] Osprey and Blue Heron

[Marie P. Read]

Ospreys and Great Blue Herons often have a contentious relationship. These 
large herons compete with the Ospreys for nest sites and have been known to 
prey on osprey eggs. With their dagger-like bills they are well able to look 
after themselves even against a raptor, so I would not view this as heron being 
victimized. Nature is competition. 

Marie

Marie Read Wildlife Photography
452 Ringwood Road
Freeville NY  13068 USA

Phone  607-539-6608
e-mail   m...@cornell.edu

Website: http://www.marieread.com
Follow me on Facebook:  
https://www.facebook.com/Marie-Read-Wildlife-Photography-104356136271727/

From: bounce-121667743-5851...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-121667743-5851...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Poppy Singer 
[poppysinger.ith...@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2017 10:47 PM
To: AB Clark
Cc: Annette Nadeau; CAYUGABIRDS-L
Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Osprey and Blue Heron

Twice this week I've been at Salt Point and witnessed an Osprey repeatedly 
attacking a Great Blue Heron in the water and in the air. The Heron squawks 
loudly each attack. It is distressing to see. Does anyone know what this is 
about?
(Mr. White-winged Scoter was still there as well)
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