Hi all,
As I had a transportation today, I decided to take a long drive to MNWR.
On the way I stopped at Myers nothing of interest to report. At Aurora, I saw
an adult Bald Eagle, which soared for sometime parallel to my car. Again at
Mud Lock I saw two adult Bald Eagles sitting on a dead tree and a few crows
harassing them.
I took wildlife drive hoping for Soras and the alike. At Visitor Center there
were numerous Pectoral Sandpipers (20+), one White-rumped Sandpiper, and one
Greater Yellowlegs. In the Seneca River spillway, just at the beginning of the
drive there were two Lesser yellowlegs in lesser water and two Greater
Yellowlegs in deeper water.
On the main pool lot of duck activity was evident. Lots of Pintails and
American Widgeons were flying in the air. Tons of Green-winged teals were
clustered around the vegetation. La Rues, New Shorebird area and Bennings were
devoid of shorebirds, but Bennings had a few Shovlers along with other common
species.
May's point Pool had lots of Ring-billed gulls and one Pied-billed Grebe.
At Knox Marsellus, there were lots of shorebirds most of them were concentrated
here rather than near the Towpath.
I quickly picked out 7 HUDSONIAN GODWITS, lots of Pectoral Sandpipers and
Golden Plovers (30+) and one Black-bellied Plover among them. Shorebirds for
no reasons were taking off in a group and land somewhere else. I think this was
pre-long distance take off exercise. May be many of them might take off today.
I wonder when they take off , at dusk? A cormorant had caught a fish and it was
being harassed by a Ring-billed Gull for quite sometime. Later another
Ring-billed Gull was chasing a Greater Yellowleg, with something in its beak
for quite sometime.
Two American Pelicans were sleeping, one bill tucked inside its feather and the
other with bill in the open.
I also saw a few Barn and lots of Tree Swallows over the water. A small flock
of Bobolink flew over the marsh. Otherwise it was comparatively quiet.
One thing of note was there were no Egrets anywhere in the refuge!
Also I had a rare sighting of Tim Lenz, who got out of the car with his scope
and scanned the Knox-Marsellus quickly in about 5 minutes and left! He scanned
the area where the Hudsonian Godwits were seen, so I presume he was not
interested in other birds or he might have birded the area previously and came
for a better look of some species!
Cheers
Meena
Meena Haribal
Ithaca NY 14850
http://haribal.org/
http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/
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