John Confer and I spent the morning in the Montezuma area helping with the spring waterfowl count. We checked with the other counters at noon and found that there was nothing new for the Basin to report (no more Shovelers, no Blue-winged Teal, no Ospreys).
As we got out of the car at the DEC office on Morgan Road we were greeted by a Red-winged Blackbird singing “konk-ker-ree”. Driving south on Rt 31/89 below Savannah we had a flock of some 200 Common Grackles. Most of the fields and impoundments in the Montezuma Complex were still frozen with nothing but an occasional small flock of gulls or loafing Canada Geese. But the streams and rivers were mainly open water, and that’s where we found the birds. The areas we covered (Seneca River at Montezuma, Owasco Inlet from Port Byron north to Mosquito Point, including the iron bridge to Howland Island) contained numerous Redheads, Ring-necked Ducks, Common and Hooded Mergansers (and a few Red-breasted Mergs), an occasional scaup, Northern Pintail, a few Mallards and Black Ducks, a few Tundra Swans, and a dozen Wood Ducks. The Mucklands were completely snowed in, but we did have a single fly-over American Pipit. On the way home we stopped at Mud Lock, Beacon Marine, and Harris Park where we had more of the same birds as in the morning (plus 2 Snow Geese: one white and one blue morph). In the open water at Frontenac Park (Union Springs) we had more of the same plus 7 Green-winged Teal. The open water of Mill Pond had two Red-necked Grebes. Along the way we also had several American Wigeons (no Eurasian) and a couple of Gadwalls. Bob McGuire -- 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/ --
