I am only a few minutes from this spot so I shot over this morning and found no Gray Kingbird or anything else on the wires for that matter. This was at about 10AM and the rain was just starting and has gotten heavier since. JVN
________________________________ From: bounce-6363107-3493...@list.cornell.edu on behalf of Matthew Medler Sent: Mon 9/27/2010 9:06 AM To: cayugabirds Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Gray Kingbird reported at Montezuma Hi All, Here is an e-mail from Jeff Doyle, who asked that I share this with the group. Matt From Jeff: No, I had no camera with me, so no photograph. My wife and I hadn't been to Montezuma in a year or more. We had stopped at the visitor's center and learned that the best birding was May's Point and further north. We'd stopped at the observation tower opposite Tsache Pool, then spent some time at the May's Point Pool before heading further north. We'd never been to the Monument area before, and missed our turn the first time before coming back and turning onto North May's Point Road. We stopped at the intersection with East Road around 3:30, and I spotted a bird perched on the telephone wire a few poles up East Road from the intersection. My first thought was "kingfisher"--it seemed to have a disproportionately large beak and head. But even a quick glance through binoculars dispelled that thought, as it didn't have a crest. Next thought we had was "kingbird", because the overall aspect was reminiscent--flycatcher posture, for example. But no Eastern kingbird fieldmarks--uniform gray, no band on tail (though at first I didn't get a good look at the tail, particularly), and, I thought, larger size--more the size of a Great Crested, but not the coloration. We drove up the road slowly, stopped and looked, but didn't get out, not knowing the road and there not being an obvious place to pull off and park. The bird stayed on the wire and we got good looks with our binoculars. My next passing thought was "shrike"--overall gray, and perhaps I saw the dark streak through the eye (though I don't remember noting it at the time), but the overall shape was wrong and there wasn't the contrasting coloration of a shrike or mockingbird. We drove a little closer and the bird was disturbed, flew up (flycatcher like), and lighted again. At that time I distinctly noticed the deeply notched tail, which was quite distinctive. We hadn't brought our field guide, so I couldn't look it up there. We'd seen what we could see of the bird, so we continued on to the Monument, and soon headed back south, as we hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast. The bird wasn't on the wire when we got back to the intersection. When we got home, I looked it up in my Peterson's, and there just isn't anything else that it could be, though of course I'm highly skeptical of having seen a S. Florida/W. Indies species that is at best "casual to Long Island and Nova Scotia" and is coastal even in Florida on a wire in upstate NY! We have no internet at home, and I couldn't find Mena Haribel (sp.?) in the phone book, so the best I could do was walk over to Sapsucker yesterday morning. That's what I know! --Jeff On 9/26/10 2:20 PM, charles eldermire wrote: > Hello- Jeff Doyle stopped by the Lab to report a Gray King bird he > saw on Saturday at 330pm at the junction of East Rd and Mays Point rd > on a telephone wire. If you have questions contact Jeff at > j...@cornell.edu > > charles. -- > > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES > > ARCHIVES: 1) > http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html > 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) > http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds > > Please submit your observations to eBird: > http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > > -- > > -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
