Paul Anderson, Linda Frank, Bob Horn, Richard and Eileen Maxwell, Donna Scott, and Judy Thoroughman joined Bob McGuire and me on a walk this morning at the Dorothy McIlroy Bird Sanctuary at the northeast reaches of the Cayuga Lake Basin in Summerhill. This was the first of four walks I'm leading this weekend for the Finger Lakes Land Trust Spring Bird Quest (FLLT SBQ).
May 26 felt like midsummer and 8 AM felt like the height of midday in the overbearing heat, and the birding had a late-season feel too, with no apparent passage migrants. But still many breeding birds rewarded our patient effort. We found it difficult to see birds on the first 210 degrees of our circuit on the yellow trail (I'm speaking radially, not thermally), but the fen and swamp held many singing ALDER FLYCATCHERS all around our route. One perched for a long but distant scope view. We also heard OVENBIRDS and NORTHERN WATERTHRUSHES singing and RUFFED GROUSE drumming at several locations all around. The big surprise at the viewing platform was a singing YELLOW-THROATED VIREO, which made for a sweep of all four of our local breeding vireo species for us today. There we also saw two HOODED MERGANSERS flying by, plus a BALTIMORE ORIOLE and a fine female ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. A WILLOW FLYCATCHER joined the Alder Flycatchers in a typical two-for-one McIlroy Sanctuary Traill's special. At that point, I thought that we had already had hit our high points of the morning. But I was wrong. Back on the yellow trail, we tracked a wild but musical "kew-kew-kew-kew-kew" in the canopy to an adult SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, casting the gaze of its big red eyes down on us. I don't think I've ever seen this species look as picturesque as it did today, framed by shadowy hemlock fronds but lit up in a ray of light. Here too we heard our only WINTER WREN of the day (and my first of the spring), singing twice. It seemed like only half of a typical complete song, but of course that is still more stirring music than you get from the full songs of just about any other species. A short two-part song sounded a few times here. We pondered various ID possibilities, including an anomalous junco, but we concluded that the obvious match was NASHVILLE WARBLER. I know that Nashville Warblers breed in nearby Summer Hill State Forest, but eBird bar charts show a blank for this species in late May for the McIlroy Sanctuary. At the moment, I feel comfortable counting it for my weekend fundraising tally, but I welcome informed opinions about the plausibility of the ID. Our full list is below. Many thanks to all who joined the walk. I look forward to seeing many of you at other SBQ walks tomorrow and Monday! Mark Chao McIlroy Bird Sanctuary, Summerhill (FLLT), Cayuga, US-NY May 26, 2012 7:45 AM - 10:25 AM 39 species Canada Goose 4 Hooded Merganser 2 Ruffed Grouse 3 Great Blue Heron 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 Killdeer 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1 Alder Flycatcher 6 Willow Flycatcher 1 Great Crested Flycatcher 8 Yellow-throated Vireo 1 Blue-headed Vireo 1 Warbling Vireo 1 Red-eyed Vireo 4 Blue Jay 6 American Crow 7 Tree Swallow 3 Black-capped Chickadee 2 Brown Creeper 1 Winter Wren 1 Veery 2 American Robin 5 Gray Catbird 3 Ovenbird 4 Northern Waterthrush 3 Nashville Warbler 1 Common Yellowthroat 4 Yellow-rumped Warbler 3 Black-throated Green Warbler 2 Chipping Sparrow 1 Song Sparrow 2 Swamp Sparrow 5 Dark-eyed Junco 3 Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1 Red-winged Blackbird 8 Common Grackle 9 Brown-headed Cowbird 2 Baltimore Oriole 2 Purple Finch 1 -- 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/ --
