On Sunday morning, a fine throng of at least 18 people turned out for the second walk of this year's Finger Lakes Land Trust Spring Bird Quest (FLLT SBQ), this time at the Lindsay-Parsons Biodiversity Preserve in West Danby.
Before meeting the group, I spent 45 minutes birding alone on the west side of the preserve, near the West Danby fire station. The surpassing highlight here was an active GREAT BLUE HERON nest above the pond, which the Land Trust owns, next to the fire house. A parent stood sentinel as at least two chicks waved their stubby wings and occasionally poked their homely short-billed countenances into view. (These young have obviously hatched much more recently than the herons on the webcam of the Lab of Ornithology.) Here I also found a few GREEN HERONS flying around and often perching grandly in the angled morning light on the highest snags, with legs, necks, and even crests stretched out. This area was also very good for songbirds, including a virtuosically versatile BROWN THRASHER, as well as MOURNING WARBLER, BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER, and BLACKPOLL WARBLER singing in the woods by the old railroad bed a bit south of the water tower. We launched our group walk shortly after 8 AM on the east side of the preserve. Without even getting to the railroad tracks, we found most of the preserve's expected breeding specialties, including PRAIRIE WARBLER, CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER, BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER, BLUE-WINGED WARBLER, YELLOW-THROATED VIREO, FIELD SPARROW, INDIGO BUNTING, BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO, ALDER FLYCATCHER, and others. With patience, we got good views of most of these species (though not the cuckoo), including an extended look at a pair of Prairie Warblers installing seed fluff on a nest. See below for the full list from eBird. The biggest surprise of our group walk was a COMMON GALLINULE, which I believe Suan Yong found, swimming far to the south of the berm on Coleman Lake. This bird not only prompted the coveted eBird "confirm" prompt, it was a first for me on my seven years of doing the SBQ, and my second Common Gallinule ever in Tompkins County. (Well, you could even say today's was the first, as my only previous county sighting came when the species was known as Common Moorhen.) Wow, that was fun! Many thanks to all for your fine company, and especially to Suan, Bob McGuire, Courtney Moore, Betsy Darlington, and Jim Spear, whose help made my work as a guide a lot lighter and more efficient, given the group size. (Bob and many others continued past the railroad tracks after I turned back with a portion of the group; he may have more to report later.) Two more walks will mark the close of this year's SBQ tomorrow. We'll have an early-person special from 6:30 to 8:00 AM at the Goetchius Wetland Preserve in Caroline (meet by the parking area marked with the big sign), and then the weekend finale starting at 8:30 at the Park Nature Preserve on Irish Settlement Road in Dryden. I hope to see many of you there! Mark Chao _______________________________ Lindsay-Parsons FLLT Preserve, Tompkins, US-NY May 27, 2012 7:00 AM - 10:15 AM 52 species Canada Goose 21 Wood Duck 4 Great Blue Heron 3 Green Heron 4 Turkey Vulture 1 Common Gallinule 1 Seen swimming in Coleman Lake before it disappeared in edge vegetation. Distant but unmistakable scope views of dark body, red bill with light tip, white sides of tail. Many observers. Mourning Dove 3 Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1 Black-billed Cuckoo 2 Belted Kingfisher 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker 2 Alder Flycatcher 5 Eastern Phoebe 1 Eastern Kingbird 1 Yellow-throated Vireo 3 Warbling Vireo 3 Red-eyed Vireo 3 Blue Jay 2 American Crow 4 Tree Swallow 5 Barn Swallow 10 Black-capped Chickadee 4 Veery 3 Wood Thrush 1 American Robin 3 Gray Catbird 4 Brown Thrasher 1 European Starling 14 Cedar Waxwing 18 Ovenbird 3 Blue-winged Warbler 1 Black-and-white Warbler 1 Mourning Warbler 1 Common Yellowthroat 3 Blackburnian Warbler 1 Yellow Warbler 4 Chestnut-sided Warbler 3 Blackpoll Warbler 1 Prairie Warbler 4 Field Sparrow 6 Savannah Sparrow 1 Song Sparrow 3 Dark-eyed Junco 3 Scarlet Tanager 1 Northern Cardinal 2 Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1 Indigo Bunting 6 Bobolink 1 Red-winged Blackbird 8 Common Grackle 17 Baltimore Oriole 6 American Goldfinch 1 This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org) -- 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/ --
