[cayugabirds-l] Spring 2016 Avicaching results...and a fall Avicaching season!

2016-09-02 Thread Ian Davies 
Hi Cayugabirders,

Hope that you’ve all been seeing some great birds recently. September is in the 
air, and it smells like migrants. Life is good.

This past spring and summer, 59 local birders took to the forests of Tompkins, 
Cortland, and Schuyler Counties—recording 138 species on more than 2,500 eBird 
checklists. All of this was for Avicaching—a project that provides a fun game 
for our local birding community, while also collecting data that are used for a 
specific research question: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/avicaching/.

This most recent version of Avicaching was created to address the question of 
roadside bias in breeding birds: how are analytical results influenced by the 
fact that almost all birding data are from alongside roads? By collecting 
information on birds at varying distances to roads, we can further understand 
how this affects the likelihood of detecting a given species at a given 
distance from the road. Factoring that into analysis will be a great step 
forward for the data products that we can provide for the birding community. We 
are just beginning to analyze the data that were collected, and will share 
results when they’re available.

Of course, any good game has a winner, and a prize! In Avicaching, your birding 
at Avicaches earns you points, and each point gives you one chance at a lottery 
drawing. The more points, the higher chance—but no guarantees! The winner of 
the the last round of Avicaching, chosen by random lottery draw, is Sarah 
Toner! Sarah is an undergraduate at Cornell, and she saw 73 species and earned 
424 Avicaching points on her way to winning. Congratulations, Sarah. The clear 
winners on species and total points are Jay McGowan and Livia Santana—their 
amazing Avicaching efforts earned almost 10,000 points combined, with 116 and 
108 species respectively. Incredible, and truly excellent work.

With the last version of Avicaching over, there’s a new one on the way! This 
fall, we’re going to be approaching the same question of roadside bias—but in 
migration season. There are a lot of unknowns about how birds use the forested 
landscapes in fall, and you can help change that! In addition, these upland 
forests can be incredibly birdy in fall. Here is a list from Texas Hollow State 
Forest last fall, where there are 15 Avicaching locations this year: 
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S25203380!

One of the difficulties with fall birding is that the birds are much harder to 
detect than in spring—not singing, and often moving quietly through the 
undergrowth. With this in mind, we want to capture whether you’ve used any 
attraction methods during your Avicaching this fall. It will be very important 
for the analysis for you to note in the checklist comments whether you pished, 
or used a owl/chickadee “mobbing” tape. Please put the precise word “MOB” in 
the comments if you used the tape, or “PISH” if you pished only. If you are 
planning on pishing; consider using the mobbing (judiciously) to standardize 
the attraction method between observers. This distinction will be exceedingly 
helpful for analysis.

And of course, in addition to the fun of exploration and contribution, we have 
prizes to give away to Avicachers! This fall there will be 5 winners chosen 
from all Avicachers—each person will be able to choose an eBird t-shirt or 
ballcap in reward for their victory. To get started, check out the map of 
locations, and go explore some this weekend! 
http://ebird.org/ebird/avicache/home. Standings will reset from September 
onwards by early next week.

We’ll see you out there.

Very best,
Ian

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Ian Davies
eBird Project Coordinator
Ithaca, NY
i...@cornell.edu
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
http://ebird.org/ebird/profile/MTI3NDA0


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Sora! Re: [cayugabirds-l] MNWR AMBI LEBI SORA

2016-09-02 Thread M & K Mannella 
SORA Still there at 6:30 pm. What a pretty little bird!

Michele
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> On Aug 28, 2016, at 10:04 AM, Suan Yong  wrote:
> 
> Having not come up to Montezuma for way too long, I dragged myself out of bed 
> to get here early. In the first marshy channel to the left along the drive, I 
> soon found with the help of my infrared camera a sora foraging just in the 
> shadows of the reeds, never really coming out in the open until eventually it 
> ran across the channel to the same side as the road but no longer visible. As 
> I panned my infrared camera around I saw a shape at mid-level of the cattails 
> which turned out to be a least bittern, who walked briefly across the reeds 
> about three feet off the surface before flying across and into some deeper 
> reeds. At Eaton Marsh there was an American Bittern foraging perhaps 30 feet 
> away. When I pulled over to photograph it, it froze, pointed up, swayed like 
> the wind, then decided the jig was up and walked away into invisibility.
> 
> There were yellowlegs and at least one peep-ish shorebird at Seneca Flats, 
> but lacking patience with the backlighting and inability to scope from the 
> car, I didn't spend much time there.
> 
> Lots of young gallinule and coots and pb grebes.
> 
> Suan
> _
> http://suan-yong.com
> --
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[cayugabirds-l] MNWR Visitor center pond

2016-09-02 Thread Dave K 
This morning the Visitor Center pond held the Ruddy Turnstone plus Pectoral SP, 
Least SP, Solitary SP, both Yellowlegs and a variety of ducks.

If the pond has only been filled for a couple of days, this is a good start.


https://flic.kr/p/LFGmz2

[https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8306/29328914811_903f26de80_b.jpg][https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8306/29328914811_903f26de80_b.jpg]



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[cayugabirds-l] Ruddy Turnstone MNWR visitor center pond

2016-09-02 Thread Dave K 
Close looks South end of deck. 10AM

Sent from Huawei Mobile

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[cayugabirds-l] Montezuma Audubon Center shorebirds

2016-09-02 Thread Dave Nutter 
Ann Mitchell & I also visited the south pond behind the Montezuma Audubon 
Center on NYS-89 north of Savannah. This pond has been drawn down. A flock of 
21 Great Egrets and 9 Great Blue Herons crowded along the central channel to 
feed on trapped fish. There were both Yellowlegs and a Solitary Sandpiper as 
well. The mud flats hosted 3 Wilson's Snipe, 2 Killdeer, 4 Semipalmated 
Plovers, 7 Semipalmated Sandpipers, and 90 Least Sandpipers. 

At the Montezuma NWR headquarters" newly wetted shorebird habitat which Pete 
Saracino mentioned, we saw 3 Least Sandpipers and a Semipalmated Plover in 
addition to the Killdeer & Yellowlegs. We also expect that to improve. 

At the Seneca Slough there was a Stilt Sandpiper, a Solitary, and a couple 
Lesser Yellowlegs. Seneca Flats had more potential than shorebirds, but it 
often seems better later in the day. Banning had too much water. Mays Point 
Pool only had a very few scattered and hard to see Greater and Lesser 
Yellowlegs when we were there. Knox-Marsellus had 2 yellowlegs, 2 Great Blue 
Herons and 4 dabblers on a distant puddle and smear of mud. We could not see 
Puddler's small patch of habitat well enough from the East Road lookout. 
--Dave Nutter
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