All, The imm. White Ibis showed well this morning from around 11:15 - 12:00 noon.
When I arrived around 11:00 a birder who was just leaving said he had seen it 10 minutes earlier from the wooden platform on the south side of Oil City Road. It was no longer visible because it was now feeding in a cross channel. (Here we go again. %$#@&) There are evidently many such little channels running east-west from the observation platform area down into New Jersey. The entire area is overgrown with vegetation and visibility is terrible. Long story cut short: About ten minutes later I watched the bird take flight from just where he described, fly north across Oil City road, and land in the pond north of Oil City Road and east of the dirt road that goes north (F on map below). This is the area the bird has been frequenting the most for the last three weeks or so. The bird was in the air about 20 seconds. So to the person who told me all this: Thank you! If you tried to phone me, evidently I gave you the wrong number, as I never received any message. I then walked up the dirt road north (called Liberty Lane in Google Maps) in the off chance that the bird would fly again. There was a person standing in the old observation platform (more details below). As I approached, he said he had the bird in his scope. I climbed up, and the bird was easily visible for the next half hour. It showed well in the scopes. Advice to those coming here: Refer to this map: http://150.108.68.34/~rlewis/oilcity.jpg A: parking lot and wooden platform. B: original location of White Ibis (August 6). C: one can park here and walk south to get a look into the various channels. D: little path leading to good view of the pond west of Liberty Lane. The ibis was here a couple days ago. E: the old observation platform. It is quite easy to get up here (contrary to what I was told by someone three weeks ago). F: the pond where the ibis seems to spend most of its time. With a scope at E, views are pretty good. The area is extremely grown up with vegetation. There is no way to see the pond F from Liberty Lane, or from Oil City Road. Oh yes, the person on the platform reported a black bear extremely close to the platform early this morning. Bob Lewis Sleepy Hollow NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
