Early-morning birding at the Goetchius Wetland Preserve was excellent as usual for our group of 12 on Memorial Day. We saw a pair of BOBOLINKS descending together to a presumed nesting or trysting site on the ground, plus three other males perched up in song. We also saw a SAVANNAH SPARROW and one EASTERN MEADOWLARK in the grassy field by the parking area.
Around the wetland itself, we got an excellent lesson in “Traill’s” Flycatcher songs, with several WILLOW FLYCATCHERS and ALDER FLYCATCHERS all in full voice. We saw about 60 CEDAR WAXWINGS foraging and streaming from tree to tree and across the road in a few loose flocks. And thanks to John Confer, we got the morning’s second-biggest surprise – a SORA that responded to playback with both its high squealing whinny and its song of similar structure but lower, richer tone. Most of us then went to the Baldwin Tract of the Roy H. Park Preserve in Dryden. Others joined us there, and soon we had an impressive group of 20, including three very special guests – Frank and Blythe Baldwin, the former longtime owners and protectors of the property, and Miyoko Chu, my wife and constant supporter for the Spring Bird Quest and everything else. An ALDER FLYCATCHER greeted us all with many ripping songs from a low perch just beyond the parking lot. Soon afterward, we had our best warbler sighting of the day – a PRAIRIE WARBLER right above the first trail fork. For me, the defining aspect of this walk was the delightful, humbling, sometimes vexing challenge of sound ID of atypically-vocalizing birds. First we heard a very high-pitched song consisting of a few straight notes and then followed by some faster tripping ones. The notes had a pinched, forced quality and sometimes the song would rise. I remembered watching and photographing a bird singing just such an unusual in-between repertoire here eleven days ago. So I declared it a Blackburnian Warbler. Then Miyoko saw a GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET. Ken Kemphues played this species’ song on his mobile device. It was an exact match. But further along the trail, we again heard a very high two-part song, just like the other one with straight notes and a short tripping half-trill. Many of us visually confirmed this one. It was a splendid male BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER. So, crazy as it seems, I have to conclude that we have two species singing indistinguishable songs within earshot of each other in the preserve. And I think the spruces that Frank and Blythe had planted here many years ago, when the place was just an old untended cornfield, have now grown tall enough for Blackburnians to breed here. Our second sound ID challenge was yet more puzzling – and it had an even more mind-blowing resolution. For about 20 minutes, we approached a bird issuing a high, pure “chu-wee” call, once every 30 seconds or so. I said I thought it was a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher because it was too simple and pure and short to be anything else, including a goldfinch or an Eastern Wood-Pewee (even considering that this species’ song is sometimes abbreviated to two syllables, especially late in the breeding season). Ken played the call of Yellow-bellied Flycatcher on his app – again, a perfect match. But I hedged because it seemed to be coming from the tops of hardwood trees, loudly and repeatedly as if from a singing bird on a territory. Want to guess what it was? Ken and another participant eventually saw the bird making that repeated, pure, rising two-syllable sound. It was an utterly atypical RED-EYED VIREO. I have found nothing remotely similar to this vocalization in any online audio library, nor in the Birds of North America account. Maybe some local sound recordist ought to go check this bizarro place out. The rest of our walk seemed much more normal. We all heard and some of us saw a singing LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH at the bottom of the ravine. We heard many other species typical of the site, including at leaste half a dozen MAGNOLIA WARBLERS, a few BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLERS, SCARLET TANAGER, INDIGO BUNTING, EASTERN TOWHEE, and others. I added just one more species to the month’s SBQ count – a COMMON RAVEN, also heard only. My thanks to all participants and of course the Finger Lakes Land Trust for another great morning! Mark Chao Running SBQ tally: 117 bird species Running count of bird walk participants (counting repeat customers each time, but not including me): 114 -- 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/ --
