Here's a delayed report on a noteworthy visit to Van Dyne Spoor last Sunday at noon (after an unremarkable drive up the east shore of the lake*). The "field" south of the spoor has grown to be a lush wetland habitat - which is to say, poor viewing due to dense vegetation. The one open area is the pond at the end of the road, which was actively patrolled by black terns, at least one at any given time, often two, up to four seen at once. I sat in a folding chair for an hour or so eating lunch and watching the coots and gallinule-moorhens and pied-billed grebes swimming in the open, and briefly saw a breeding-plumage horned grebe emerge from the reeds. This prompted an e-bird confirmation, and is the third occasion this year where I'd failed to appreciate the significance of a sighting, and I started to question whether I'd indeed seen a horned grebe, since I only gave it a fleeting glance before continuing to scan. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't've mis-IDed a breeding horned grebe, even in the bright slightly backlit midday sun. There were juvenile pied-billed and juvenile gallinules that could have been mistaken for nonbreeding podiceps, but not breeding. I also had fun watching various herons seen only in flight, emerging briefly from the cattails: many GBHs more vocal than I'm used to; a big-bodied herring-gull-colored bird wearing a black backpack: black-crowned night heron; a smaller big-bodied dark bird with trailing yellow legs: green heron; an even smaller such bird with trailing yellow legs but flashy wings, almost reminiscent of a halcyon kingfisher: what was that? Sibley says: least bittern! There were also all manner of howling vocalizations from the reeds, mostly gallinules I think, maybe some pied-billed mixed in. I didn't hear anything I could ID as bitterns or rails. A willow flycatcher also sang a couple times from nearby.
When I tried to leave a train was parked on the tracks for a good hour trapping me in. I needed to take a nap anyways, but I think there is another way out that you can sorta make out in the google satellite images. Suan *The unremarkable drive up included a stop at Union Springs where a treetop hosted a reception of TVs (get it? :-D) including two sunning their wings. At Cayuga I decided to try scanning from above Harris park, though all I found were watercrafts. Has anyone tried for the western grebes recently? I wonder if it's worth looking for them still, perhaps on a less pleasant day for boating or earlier in the morning. -- 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/ --
