Hi all, As I had a transportation today, I decided to take a long drive to MNWR.
On the way I stopped at Myers nothing of interest to report. At Aurora, I saw an adult Bald Eagle, which soared for sometime parallel to my car. Again at Mud Lock I saw two adult Bald Eagles sitting on a dead tree and a few crows harassing them. I took wildlife drive hoping for Soras and the alike. At Visitor Center there were numerous Pectoral Sandpipers (20+), one White-rumped Sandpiper, and one Greater Yellowlegs. In the Seneca River spillway, just at the beginning of the drive there were two Lesser yellowlegs in lesser water and two Greater Yellowlegs in deeper water. On the main pool lot of duck activity was evident. Lots of Pintails and American Widgeons were flying in the air. Tons of Green-winged teals were clustered around the vegetation. La Rues, New Shorebird area and Bennings were devoid of shorebirds, but Bennings had a few Shovlers along with other common species. May's point Pool had lots of Ring-billed gulls and one Pied-billed Grebe. At Knox Marsellus, there were lots of shorebirds most of them were concentrated here rather than near the Towpath. I quickly picked out 7 HUDSONIAN GODWITS, lots of Pectoral Sandpipers and Golden Plovers (30+) and one Black-bellied Plover among them. Shorebirds for no reasons were taking off in a group and land somewhere else. I think this was pre-long distance take off exercise. May be many of them might take off today. I wonder when they take off , at dusk? A cormorant had caught a fish and it was being harassed by a Ring-billed Gull for quite sometime. Later another Ring-billed Gull was chasing a Greater Yellowleg, with something in its beak for quite sometime. Two American Pelicans were sleeping, one bill tucked inside its feather and the other with bill in the open. I also saw a few Barn and lots of Tree Swallows over the water. A small flock of Bobolink flew over the marsh. Otherwise it was comparatively quiet. One thing of note was there were no Egrets anywhere in the refuge! Also I had a rare sighting of Tim Lenz, who got out of the car with his scope and scanned the Knox-Marsellus quickly in about 5 minutes and left! He scanned the area where the Hudsonian Godwits were seen, so I presume he was not interested in other birds or he might have birded the area previously and came for a better look of some species! Cheers Meena Meena Haribal Ithaca NY 14850 http://haribal.org/ http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ -- 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/ --
