Took a trip today with Renee DePrato and Melissa Penta to Montezuma and vicinity. Our first stop was Towpath Road and the highlight was a GREAT HORNED OWL that first was literally sitting on the road. From a distance we thought it was a really big cat. The bird unfortunately had one bad eye and you can see this in these photos from Melissa's flickr account... http://www.flickr.com/photos/mydigitalmind/7617481278/in/photostream/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/mydigitalmind/7617481956/in/photostream/ The bird stuck around in a tree the whole time we were there after flying up from the
road. Knox-Marcellus Marsh appears to have been drawn down so that is where most of the shorebirds were today as the water levels are way down from a week ago. The water levels on Puddler's Marsh are now higher so there were very few shorebirds. Unfortunately, the views to Knox-Marcellus are more distant than from Puddler's. So although there were a lot of shorebirds out there in K-M marsh, they were really hard to see unless you were on 60x with your scope. The vast majority of the shorebirds were LESSER YELLOWLEGS. There were at least 2 GREATER YELLOWLEGS. In addition, we had 3 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, 1 SOLITARY SANDPIPER, 2 KILLDEER, 1 SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, at least 1 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER, and at least 15 LEAST SANDPIPERS. I also had what I thought could be a BAIRD'S, but again, the distance was too much for me to be sure. There were also 2 GREAT EGRETS and many many GREAT BLUE HERONS. I also saw one distant BLUE-WINGED TEAL and there were many many GREEN-WINGED TEAL. >From Puddler's marsh, we had a nice look at a PECTORAL SANDPIPER close, also there was a SPOTTED SANDPIPER with 2 fly-over SOLITARY SANDPIPERS that were calling. Puddler's continues to have plenty of gulls and caspian terns. I counted 202 RING-BILLED GULLS and 41 CASPIAN TERNS. I could not relocate the common tern or bonaparte's gulls that I had a week ago here. We also saw 2 GREEN HERONS. Next stop was Seneca Meadows to look for the DICKCISSELS for Melissa and Renee. Unfortunately, there were NO signs of any of these guys. There was another birder who had been there since 8 am with no luck. I heard no songs or buzzy calls. They may have left or were busy feeding young??? We did see many many BOBOLINKS in various plumages and a couple male INDIGO BUNTINGS that put on a show from a weedy area with an amazing variety of wildflowers. Then we went to Van Dyne Sporer Road and from the very end of the road we saw quite a bit. There was a mass of mainly RING-BILLED GULLS and some CASPIAN TERNS flying around fairly distant but easily identifiable with binoculars and especially a scope. I also was lucky to get on a flying LEAST BITTERN and also a BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON in my scope. Unfortunately, these guys landed down in the reeds distant so the others did not get to see them. We did have a nice view of a fly-by AMERICAN BITTERN. There also were AMERICAN COOTS, COMMON GALLINULE and PIED-BILLED GREBE with young. Next stop was Lott Farm, Seneca Agricultural Fairgrounds and we saw at least 4 fully fledged UPLAND SANDPIPERS. A very nice day to say the least. Dave Nicosia Johnson City, NY -- 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/ --
