This afternoon we took a ride through Montezuma expecting little as so
much had frozen earlier in the week. We were pleasantly surprised by the
300+ Tundra Swans in the main pool along with large numbers of lingering
species like Ring-necks, Coot, Pintail and Gadwall plus even larger numbers
of newly arrived Mallards and Black ducks. We had 20 bald eagles on the
muskrat houses there and 4 more on the Tschasche pool ice.
In the pool behind may's point there were 43 Hooded Mergansers to look
down on from route 89.
We had heard that of three groups of birders that had looked over Knox
Marcellus marsh this week only 4 Sandhill Cranes were seen so we were again
surprised to find a large flock totaling 71!! This was around 2:30. The
next surprise was the number of Mallards and Black ducks there. The mudflats
and shallows were nearly covered. We counted the tip of one peninsula and
came up with 800 birds. Extrapolated from there and came up with a very
conservative 8000 birds with Blacks Ducks making up about 2 %.
We checked the corn fields along route 31 as 4 of the cranes flew that
way. We found them but no others. Canada geese and another approx. 200
Tundra swans were feeding in those fields. Out of all these waterfowl we
found 1 single Snow goose (no, not a Ross's) on the corn fields. Where are
they?
Up to Sodus bay the Third Creek outlet cove (west of Shaker's heights)
had a nice small mixed flock of both scaup species, Redhead, Canvasback,
Bufflehead, Hooded Mergansers, Coot, Ruddy ducks and 1 Tundra swan. 2 Horned
grebes and a Red-throated loon were farther out in the cove.
We finished at Sodus Point where a Snowy owl was resting on the lower
level of the east break wall. Only a few gulls on the sandbars and a group
of 10 Bufflehead were the only meal possibilities in sight for him. We
believe this bird was more heavily marked on the flight feathers and back
than the bird seen there on the 7th and 8th , but still (probably) a fairly
mature male. Mike Gullo had just seen 6 small shorebirds fly out the channel
in the dim light but we couldn't relocate them. Mike and Joann Tetlow
--
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/
--
