On Saturday morning, eleven birders joined me for a walk at the Dorothy McIlroy 
Bird Sanctuary in Summerhill.  As Karen kindly mentioned earlier, this was the 
first of four free public walks over the weekend as part of the Finger Lakes 
Land Trust Spring Bird Quest (SBQ).  

Including stops at the Land Trust's Etna Nature Preserve and the Genung Nature 
Preserve in Freeville, as well as the group walk, Bob McGuire and I found 60 
species in a morning of pretty relaxed birding.  See below for highlights from 
all three sites.

Mark Chao

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1.  Etna Nature Preserve
Route 366 near Route 13, Etna
6:35-6:45 AM and 11:20 AM
19 species, including YELLOW-THROATED VIREO

The Yellow-throated Vireo was quite a nice surprise, singing from somewhere 
across Fall Creek.  Almost equally gratifying were easy encounters with House 
Wren, House Finch, and Downy Woodpecker, which, despite their ubiquity around 
town, have been very difficult to find during past SBQs.  


2.  Genung Nature Preserve
Route 38, Freeville
6:50-7:05 AM and 11:15 AM
27 species, including PINE WARBLER, CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER, and BLUE-WINGED 
WARBLER

Last year I missed Pine Warbler here, but today, Bob and I found it smoothly 
trilling right along the road, just where I had found it in May in past years.  
We did not walk the trail loop.


3.  Dorothy McIlroy Bird Sanctuary
Lake Como Road, Summerhill
7:30-10:30 AM
48+ species, including NORTHERN GOSHAWK, RUFFED GROUSE, YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO, 
RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, ALDER FLYCATCHER, WILLOW FLYCATCHER, EASTERN 
KINGBIRD, WINTER WREN, EASTERN BLUEBIRD, BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER, 
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, OVENBIRD, NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH, and PURPLE FINCH.

Before our group walk began, Bob and I heard a rather distant warbler singing 
up the slope and across the road from the beginning of Lane A by the road.  The 
song consisted of four or five straight high notes, with no emphatic ending.  I 
thought that this might be a very late boreal warbler (it sounded more like 
Cape May than Bay-breasted), but we couldn't confirm it by sight.  

In the sanctuary itself, we missed a lot of the songbirds that I would have 
expected, including Hermit Thrush, Blue-headed Vireo, Magnolia Warbler, and 
Canada Warbler.  Still, I thought that the birding was nonetheless quite 
excellent.  The greatest highlight was surely the Northern Goshawk.  As we were 
just gathering in the parking lot, it rose up above the treetops and offered a 
brief but electrifying view of its steely gray underside and broad-winged 
shape.  The bird then descended into the very center of the preserve and 
sounded several call notes.  It was the first time I've ever heard the famed 
nesting call of this species -- pure and proud as a clarion but so penetrating 
as to be a little unsettling.  Now I understand why many field guides say that 
the call sounds "wild."

Also around the parking lot, we had scope views of a pair of Eastern Bluebirds 
tending a nest box and glimpses of two Yellow-billed Cuckoos (one flying 
across, one briefly perched in a gap in the foliage).  In the woods, viewing 
was difficult as expected, but the Winter Wren's repeated singing kept us 
plenty entertained.  Right by the platform, we saw five chickadees fledging one 
by one from a nest.  They looked like adults except for their slightly shorter 
tails, yellow gapes, labored flight, and generally clueless demeanor.  We also 
saw an active kingbird nest about 25 meters in front of us.  We couldn't see 
much of the young in the cavity, except the rounded tops of their little heads.


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