The main attraction right now is the large number of birds at the Main Pool and K-M/Puddler's Marsh. Bald Eagles were flushing the ducks from time to time and creating great clouds of waterfowl on the Wildlife Drive. I looked for the Eared Grebe but did not see it and only one ibis was present. A Canvasback was new for me on the Main Pool, among many wigeon, Ruddy Ducks, Lesser Scaup, coots, pintail, Gadwall, and Green-winged Teal. I noticed only 1 Black Duck and no Blue-winged Teal.
Over to East Rd where the visibility was excellent. I spent several hours going through geese etc. The very back edge of Puddler had three Greater Yellowlegs barely visible under very clear conditions. Herring may have replaced Ring-bill as the dominant gull. 44 Sandhill Cranes flew in on the evening roost flight. Back to the Wildlife Drive where evening flight was also fully on. Most exciting was 40 (exact count) Dunlin which flew in to Eaton Marsh (had not been present earlier). At Clay Marsh in Clay on Tuesday the evening blackbird roost flight was impressive. I clicked 40,000 by hundreds but missed birds coming in from other directions. Dominant species were Red-winged Blackbird (mostly) with some grackles mixed in and probably a lot of Rusties. Virtually nothing was flying until about 4:05pm when great rivers began. Red-wings and Rusties were singing. I put photos up illustrating the great duck and blackbird clouds. Also coots flying, a coot revealing his tail (much more detail to it than I would have thought), plus the 44 cranes flying in, the 40 Dunlin, Ruddy Ducks diving, and dabblers tipping. https://www.flickr.com/photos/krankykestrel/ David Wheeler N. Syracuse, NY -- 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/ --
