Spoonbill in same MNWR Thruway pool as Sunday.....better light. 6:10 Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg>
________________________________ From: bounce-125769107-25047...@list.cornell.edu <bounce-125769107-25047...@list.cornell.edu> on behalf of Donna Lee Scott <d...@cornell.edu> Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2021 5:33:40 PM To: Dave Nutter <nutter.d...@me.com> Cc: CAYUGABIRDS-L <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu> Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Montezuma Spoonbill update, 13 July Tom Auer on Cayuga Rare Bird Alert just reported R. Spoonbill back at Eagle statue/ Thruway pond. Donna Scott Lansing Sent from my iPhone On Jul 13, 2021, at 5:06 PM, Dave Nutter <nutter.d...@me.com> wrote: The Roseate Spoonbill at Montezuma NWR, which was seen by many on July 11th in a pond along the Wildlife Drive by I-90 and the giant Bald Eagle Stature, flew with a Great Egret toward Tschache Pool early that evening. It has been seen several times in Tschache Pool in the company of one or more Great Egrets both on the 12th and today the 13th as recently as early this afternoon. As I understand it these views are distant and some were brief views in flight. Because Tschache Pool is closed to the public and mostly heavily vegetated, I believe all those views were from the tower along NYS-89 just north of I-90 (although sometimes some open water can be seen from farther north along NYS-89), looking at the few large areas of open water at the edges while keeping an eye open for overflights. Still, if you want to see a big pink bird with a uniquely wacky bill, and you either don’t have or don’t want to use psychedelic drugs, Tschache Pool may be your best bet. Lots of people submitted photos of this Roseate Spoonbill to eBird. Some of my favorites are by Dave Kennedy (feeding), by Mark Miller (shaking after bathing), and Gary Chapin (flying). The latter 2 show the black margins to the primary tips. The photos can be found by going to “My eBird” then “Alerts” and calling up Seneca County NY which gives all reports of rarities for the past 7 days (so this offer expires on the 18th), then “details” for individual reports’ remarks & photos. There are also a bunch of photos on the Birds of Montezuma Facebook page (a site put together by photographers, not the official NWR site). As you may know, I try to keep track of annual first records of bird species in the Cayuga Lake Basin in a table on the Cayuga Bird Club website’s Resources page. So I’ve been trying to figure out who found this bird, and I’m happy to credit multiple independent finders. So far this is what I have, all on July 11th: Ginger Bernardin submitted an eBird list from the Wildlife Drive from 8-9:30am including a brief description and a photo of the spoonbill. But before this eBird list showed up in eBird’s rare birds reports, other folks independently encountered the Roseate Spoonbill, so they get credit, too. Dianne Dean Quintavalle and her husband (who deserves some credit but I saw no name for him) saw and recognized the bird through a telescope at a viewing platform on the Wildlife Drive. They were unable to photograph it, but she started a conversation on the Birds of Montezuma Facebook page at 9:59am confirming that she saw a pink bird with a spoon bill which she named as Roseate Spoonbill. Karen Gellman replied in that conversation that she had also seen the bird by about 11am but had trouble reporting it to eBird because Roseate Spoonbill is not part of eBird’s NE US regional repertoire. By 11:23 she had posted photos of the bird to that facebook page, and she later submitted those photos to eBird for that time. Linda Harvey and Angela Rider both managed overcome such obstacles and submitted incidental single bird reports for Roseate Spoonbill to eBird at 11:13 & 11:17 respectively, both from the Thruway Pools along the Wildlife Drive. These reports piqued the interest of eBird followers, yet left folks wondering if these unprecedented reports were real, because neither report included any details of ID or evidence that would separate the reports from the occasional person horsing around with an absurd report (yes, that does happen) or a wild error of some sort (that also happens). I have generally stopped crediting empty reports of rarities. The exception which applies here is when the report which lack details or evidence manages to help other observers to find the bird and provide those details &/or that evidence. So they get credit. Scouts went looking. Meanwhile an eBird report submitted later by Zeke VanZante for the Wildlife Drive says it started at 11:15am (right in between the previous 2 eBird reports) and spent 2 hours to travel 5 miles. He provides a photo of the Roseate Spoonbill from near the start of the Wildlife Drive, and says he also saw a/the Spoonbill at the end of the drive, making him wonder if there were 2 Spoonbills. Regardless of precise timing and the flights of the bird, this is an independent valid report, so this name is included. And the scouts alerted on account of eBird reports indeed found the bird, which graciously stuck around. The first of those scouts to send word back was Mike Gullo at 12:37, who saw the Roseate Spoonbill at Eaton Marsh from which I think it flew over the Seneca River and also toward the Thruway Pools (again). His eBird reports are among many with photos, and I think it’s fair to say that the many ensuing observers owe their observations in part to one or more of the above people. BTW, details for ID can be short and plain, like these actual examples from eBird reports for this bird: “pink bird large spoon bill” “pale pink wading bird with wide flat bill” “pink bird with long flat bill” “large pink bird w spoon shaped bill” The goal is to differentiate the observed rarity from any equally unlikely species, which in this case is easy. I hope the Spoonbill again chooses a more publicly accessible pond next. - - Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- 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/ --