I went up to Montezuma today with a friend. We didn't find anything new, but lots of nice birds as always. Both the GLOSSY and the WHITE-FACED IBIS are still around, this morning foraging in the grassy back part of the Visitor Center pond. They were hard to see and afforded much poorer views than when along the Wildlife Drive at Benning, but are still there. Good numbers of both Dunlin and Pectoral Sandpipers here as well.
Lots of waterfowl were along the Wildlife Drive, including a large group of Ring-necked Ducks with a few scaup and Redhead mixed in, and a large group of mostly scaup in a deeper part of the Main Pool. Knox-Marsellus hosted the usual host of avian megafauna, including at least nine Sandhill Cranes, seven Trumpeter Swans, thousand of Canada and over a hundred Snow geese, at least one hard-to-see adult ROSS'S GOOSE, and lingering Dunlin, Greater Yellowlegs, and a single Black-bellied Plover, as well as a flyover calling American Golden-Plover. We did not see the pelicans here, but they were seen later in the day, so I'm not sure where they were hiding while we were there. Another highlight was a nice but brief look at an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER along Towpath Road as we were driving out. We found few ducks but 31 Trumpeter Swans in the fields on the north side of Armitage Road. Finally, we spent some time trying to relocate the YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD found by Jim and Allison Healy yesterday on Rt. 414 just north of NYS 90 in Tyre (http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15495037). We found likely the same congregation of blackbirds (thousands of Red-winged with many cowbirds, Rusties, and grackles mixed in), but were unsuccessful at picking out a Yellow-headed. It was difficult as the flocks tended to burst out of the cornfields and dissipate into the distance quite rapidly, but the birds seemed to favor the large cornfield complex on the east side of 414 as seen from the west end of Chase Road, which I think is fairly close to where the bird was seen in flight and reported to eBird. Anyway, the bird could still be around as we didn't come close to picking through all the blackbirds that were around, but we didn't find it. Additional reports from anyone looking for this bird would be appreciated. Cheers, Jay -- Jay McGowan Macaulay Library Cornell Lab of Ornithology [email protected] -- 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/ --
