Took a trip to Montezuma today with birding friend Stephen Hill. It was an awesome March day...totaled 63 species which is pretty good, but not unexpected given the exceptional warmth.
Some select photos from the trip can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/sets/72157629249736776/ Details below... Most of Cayuga Lake is now void of significant concentrations of waterfowl. They likely are well to the north now. So our first stop was Montezuma Visitor's Center... We counted 230 GREEN-WINGED TEAL. They were everywhere!! I looked and looked but did not find a "Eurasian" variety, although I would not be surprised if one shows up there again like last year. In addition, there were at least 4 BLUE-WINGED TEAL. In addition, there were several NORTHERN SHOVELERS, GADWALL, AMERICAN WIGEON, and NORTHERN PINTAIL among the typical mallards, black ducks and canada geese. There were no shorebirds except for KILLDEER. Several TREE SWALLOWS were swirling around above us. Next Stop was Tschache Pool. There are many waterfowl there. I counted 166 NORTHERN SHOVELERS! There were at least 200 AMERICAN WIGEON. I did not relocate Dave Nutter's EURASIAN WIGEON but I could have missed it as there were so many wigeon with many very distant. There were also many GREEN-WINGED TEAL, 1 BLUE-WINGED TEAL, several NORTHERN PINTAIL, at least 15 GADWALL, 6 REDHEADS, at least 200 RING-NECKED DUCKS, 10 BUFFLEHEAD, 2 PIED-BILLED GREBE and 4 KILLDEER (at least). There were other common birds as well. Next stop was May's Point... We were treated to 2 RUDDY DUCKS still in winter plumage but very close to the deck. There was also a small group of scaup with 1 clearly being GREATER and the others LESSER (nice having them next to each other!). AMERICAN WIGEON, GREEN-WINGED TEAL, BUFFLEHEAD and PIED-BILLED GREBE rounded out the water birds. There was also a nice EASTERN PHEOBE singing close by. Knox-Marcellus Marsh from East Road- Gone are the thousands of snow geese. In fact, we saw NO snow geese today! We did get nice views of 3 TRUMPETER SWANS, one was on a big mass of twigs...I didn't think they nest in this spot, it could have been using it as a look out I guess. There were 2 adults and 1 immature here. Great looks at bill and forehead pattern. Did not get any TUNDRA SWANS today either! Also seen here was a sizeable group of aythya species, numbering in the hundreds...way down from a couple weeks ago. But still had many CANVASVACKS, REDHEAD, SCAUP sp. and RING-NECKED DUCKS. There were 8 more RUDDY DUCKS as well with their tails in the air! We also found AMERICAN WIGEONs, SHOVELERS, PINTAIL, GREEN-WINGED TEAL, BUFFLEHEAD, COMMON MERGANSER and 1 GREAT BLUE HERON. Not many herons today. While we were watching the water birds, there were a few fly-over AMERICAN PIPITS and I heard one SAVANNAH SPARROW singing from the field below. Next stop was Van Dyne Sporer Road, by the edge of the woods, we found a couple YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, heard GOLDEN-CROWN KINGLETS, RED-BELLIED WOODPECKERS, and another EASTERN PHOEBE. There was also a couple HORNED LARKS in the field before you get to the woods that dead-ends. Much of the same waterfowl were found here two. We did find a hybrid MALLARD X BLACK DUCK here. In addition, there were 5 AMERICAN COOTS. We did not see or hear any COMMON MOORHENs (or GALLINULE now). We counted 135 RING-BILLED GULLS no other gull species present in this field seen from the end of the road. We also stopped at Morgan Road but did not get anything different but did get nice views of the AMERICAN KESTREL that are nesting in the box on the pole. There were also some RING-NECKED DUCKS on the pond there. So we headed out and stopped on the way home at GEORGE ROAD POND. There were NORTHERN SHOVELERS, RING-NECKED DUCKS, several KILLDEER, BUFFLEHEAD, GREEN-WINGED TEAL. I could not find Jay's WILSON'S SNIPE, but it easily could have been hidden somewhere in there. We wanted to see the EASTERN MEADOWLARK. But I only heard it sing twice and we could not find it. Cheers, 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/[email protected]/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/ --
