Tomorrow starting at 7:15am from the parking lot by the Tschache Pool Tower (NYS-89 just north of the Thruway) there will be a rare opportunity for members of the public onto the dike as part of a walk led by volunteer Reuben Stoltzfus to look for shorebirds who are migrating south now and stopping where there is shallow water or mudflats.
Please bring binoculars, plus a scope if you have one. I plan to bring my scope and try to share views of any shorebirds with people who don’t have scopes, and I encourage others folks to do the same. Today Reuben helped with a shorebird count for the refuge from the Tschache dike, and they observed these shorebirds: a Black-bellied Plover “a bunch of Semipalmated Plovers” “a bunch of Killdeer” “lots of Least Sandpipers” “lots of Semipalmated Sandpipers” - minus 1 caught by a Merlin 2 Stilt Sandpipers 1 Baird’s Sandpiper (first of year for Cayuga Lake Basin, I believe) 5 Pectoral Sandpipers Spotted Sandpiper Solitary Sandpiper “lots of Greater Yellowlegs” “lots of Lesser Yellowlegs 1 Wilson’s Phalarope and dowitcher sp in flight Where there are lots of shorebirds, there are often falcons (beautiful in their own right) trying to eat them, which makes shorebird watching challenging. Today 3 Peregrines were present, one of which was chased by a Merlin. Of course what is there tomorrow may be different. Also there are several other caveats: The 5 viewing cuts in the cattails generally aim at stubble where it can be hard to see shorebirds. The cuts are not very wide, so only a few people can look any one direction through any one cut. We expect there to be a barricade this tomorrow which was not there last week, such that we will not be allowed to reach the best vantage for the best mudflat, which also involved looking through the tops of cattails. Tschache Pool is now set up to retain water, so the water level is higher than last week, and shorebird habitat at the south end of Tschache will probably disappear in the coming week. Meanwhile, at Knox-Marsellus Marsh, where we have had shorebird walks in past years, refuge staff say that the water level is being drawn down. So shorebird habitat should be created there, and maybe there can be guided walks there the next 2 Saturdays, August 26 & September 2, if anyone volunteers to lead them. - - Dave Nutter -- 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/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
