Hi all,
I sent a more detailed report (below) of last Sunday's Knox-Marsellus field
trip to Wildlife Biologist Linda Ziemba and Visitor Services Manager Andrea
VanBeusichem at Montezuma NWR, as well as to Dave Nicosia. He will be leading
the trip this Sunday 9 August, also meeting at the Visitor Center at 8am and
walking down from the overlook at 8:20am. I hope to see many of you there. It's
a chance to learn about shorebirds, get scope views even if you don't own one,
practice your ID skills, and see cool birds, perhaps additional species. With
this many shorebirds a Peregrine or Merlin is bound to show up soon.
--Dave Nutter
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dave Nutter nutter.d...@me.com
Date: August 04, 2015 11:29:59 AM
To: linda_zie...@fws.gov, andrea_vanbeusic...@fws.gov,
daven102...@gmail.com
Subject: 2 Aug shorebird field trip report
Linda, Andrea, Dave,
The Knox-Marsellus shorebird field trip was a success. The weather was sunny
and pleasant. I only noticed 1 mosquito and no biting flies during the group
walk. The water level was ideal, with both wet mud and deeper water within
binocular view of the east dike, and as a result of your water-level
management there were plenty of shorebirds. They included:
* Semipalmated Plover - a few foraging on close ends of mud strips; more
resting in distant large flock of peeps
* Killdeer - several on mud
* Spotted Sandpiper - several on the extensive mud in the NW part of K-M, I
saw at least 3
* Greater Yellowlegs - a few scattered in deeper water or among wading Lessers
* Lesser Yellowlegs - the great majority of wading shorebirds
* Solitary Sandpiper - observed by others; I missed this as the group got
spread out
* Stilt Sandpiper - a few individuals feeding among Lesser Yellowlegs, I saw
at least 5
* Least Sandpiper - some on close end of mud strips; many more among distant
resting peep flock
* Pectoral Sandpiper - several on wet mud and in shallow water
* Semipalmated Sandpiper - some on close ends of mud shallow water; many
more among distant peep flock resting on mud
* Short-billed Dowitcher - a few in water, not as red, extensively colored
below, nor as hump-backed as Long-billed
* Long-billed Dowitcher - 1 in breeding plumage, in deep water not near other
dowitchers, ID by extensive reddish below, black bars on side of neck, fairly
dark tail, pronounced and ruffled hump on back when feeding, and distinctive
call note heard by others.
Other birds of note were:
* 4 Black Terns in non-breeding plumage who briefly visited K-M foraging
together
* a single breeding-plumage Bonaparte's Gull resting on the mud with numerous
Ring-billed Gulls and Caspian Terns, both of which included several juveniles
* a flock of 16 Sandhill Cranes which flew in from the north, alit in
Puddler, and were joined by 2 of the family of 3 from K-M, a total of 19,
which eBird flagged as unusually large this early.
Although I saw both Wilson's Phalarope and the first-of-the-year-reported
Red-necked Phalarope on my scouting trip the previous Tuesday, which eBird
flagged as rare that early, no phalaropes were seen on the field trip.
Long-billed Dowitcher was also early in the season, having first been found
the previous day. We found no Pluvialis although there were a couple recent
reports, one having positive ID as Black-bellied Plover.
The vegetation alongside the dike was only a minor challenge, not a problem.
Again, if up to half a dozen windows of 10 yards width were cut, that would
be ideal, but if it doesn't happen, that would be fine, too, I think.
Towpath Road had dried out and would have been only mildly unreasonable to
drive in due to uneven surface and actually preferable to walk from in order
to spend less time facing the sun. Spotted Sandpiper was the only shorebird
added in the NW area. Perhaps it would be better to delay committing where to
start each walk until we know how full Towpath's puddles are. However it was
good that folks coming directly to the wak instead of to the Visitor Center
first knew where and when to meet.
Some participants wondered why we started at 8am instead of 7, but others had
traveled 3 hours to attend, and they appreciated not having to arise any
earlier. Sunrise was at 6am so we wasted a couple of hours of great light
(birding was lovely on the Wildlife Drive at that time), so that's yet
another possible start time to consider.
I worked with participants on shorebird ID skills: looking at proportions of
legs, neck bill; body shape, especially the curve of back to
rump/wingtips/tail; learning Tringa and typical Calidris genus shape; using
relative size for ID; habits and plumage field marks of various species;
direct comparisons of Killdeer v Semipalmated Plover, Greater v Lesser
Yellowlegs, Least v Semipalmated Sandpiper; Stilt Sandpiper v Lesser
Yellowlegs; Short-billed v Long-billed Dowitcher (difficult
