This afternoon Joann and I did a quick sweep of Montezuma. The Seneca
River spillway had 2 Leasts, 3 Solitary and 4 Lesser Yellowlegs. A short
distance up in the main pool opposite Laure's lagoon a female Orchard Oriole
flew in from the east to feed on some Black Raspberry bushes sticking up out
of the cattails along the channel.
Looking from the first small pull off on the drive past the cattails
we were surprised to find 2 Black-crowned Night Herons feeding,
successfully, quite far from any cattails out with the Coot, Grebes and a DC
Cormorant at 2:30 in the afternoon. The birds were about 200 feet south of
the continuing male Ring-necked Duck.
Up to Eaton marsh, which is being further engulfed by smartweed, but
still had 4 Greater and 6 Lesser Yellowlegs plus 1 Short-billed Dowitcher.
Vegetation is already making it more difficult to find birds in Benning
Marsh but a flock of 12 Lesser Yellowlegs joined the 3 we had found. 1
single, lighter colored than Least, peep flew in but turned out to be a
Semi-palmated not the hoped for Baird's.
May's Point pool is the most encouraging but also frustrating. A couple
dozen yellowlegs and an equal number of peep flew up along the far edge when
a young Harrier flew along the far edge. We had seen an adult male and a
molting female Harrier earlier on the NW edge of the main pool marsh so they
may have had success. Scrutinizing the closer reeds we found 1 Long-billed
and 3 Short-billed Dowitchers plus 20+ more Lesser Yellowlegs. We did not
scope this so I would suggest thorough scrutiny as birds were scattered
everywhere. The Trumpeter Swan family persists there.
On to the totally shorebird free Knox-Marcellus Puddle where the lack
of shorebirds was obvious. A pair of Sandhill Cranes with a very young(downy
with adorable wing stubs) colt made up for it.YES!!. I'm guessing a second
attempt. The only other success I have heard of on the refuge were 2 young
on Tschasche back in late May or early June and a possible teenager on
Morgan Road 2 weeks ago. We didn't scope the nest tree areas but were very
surprised to see only 1 Immature Bald Eagle. Mike and Joann Tetlow
--
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/
--
