All, I haven't posted to this list for a while but it was pretty slow until recently. On September 11th, I had a first county record HUDSONIAN GODWIT at Dorchester Park Whitney Point. The bird didn't stay long and unfortunately I was the only person to get on it. There were some gulls near one of the small jetties. I heard a BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER coming from there so I went over and found the Godwit in my binoculars. This location is behind a shack at Dorchester where they rent kayaks and canoes. Unfortunately, a worker spooked all the gulls and godwit/plover before I could get my scope on the godwit. It did get it in flight in my scope with excellent views. Unfortunately it didn't come back. I checked all around the reservoir to no avail.
The drought conditions up here have recently led to really low levels on the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers which made for extensive mudflats and gravel bars. Aside from some cool shorebirds (nothing unusual) Jon Weeks found a Glossy/White-Faced Ibis on September 27th. We haven't been able to ID it to species level yet since it is immature. A challenging ID as you know. The bird is still present as of today. The location is Cheri A. Lindsay Park, an ebird hotspot in Binghamton. Here are some ebird lists that have excellent photos of this Ibis. https://ebird.org/checklist/S74308189?view=photos https://ebird.org/checklist/S74236229?view=photos Then Whitney Point dam was drawn down almost 4 feet exposing the shallow areas of Upper Lisle County Park leading to extensive mudflats and gravel bars over the last week. There is a lot of shallow water and bait fish. This is the best habitat for gulls/terns and shorebirds that I have seen here in more than 10 years. It is a bit late for the bulk of shorebird migration but I have told our local folks that anytime we have storms or a strong front to check this area out. On Saturday Oct 3rd we had 4 Forster's Terns up there, which are pretty rare in Broome. see https://ebird.org/checklist/S74360552 On Sunday, we had 5 AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVERS fly over and land on the gravel bars at Upper Lisle. This is a high count for Broome County as far as I know. The birds were juveniles. I picked them up by call and got on them in flight. They were calling again on the ground and were relocated. Fortunately Jay McGowan and his wife were also birding Upper Lisle and they got some great views of these awesome birds. Jay and Livia also tallied 92 species Sunday October 4th which is a record for Upper Lisle, previous record was 87 species. My checklist is here with fair photos of the AGPL https://ebird.org/checklist/S74411991 Then today October 7th with a cold front coming through, I get a text from Jon Weeks one of our local birders here who also found the ibis. He had an unusual gull that he thought was either a LAUGHING GULL or FRANKLIN'S GULL. I got up there after work and relocated the gull which turned out to be a FRANKLIN'S GULL. Another rarity for Broome County. see https://ebird.org/checklist/S74539138 <https://ebird.org/checklist/S74539138> So with the FRGU Upper Lisle County Park now has 201 species for 2020, our best year up here so far too date. The place also is in the top ten for all ebird hotspots in NY state so far. Hopefully we will keep this habitat a little longer before they fill-up the reservoir. Best, Dave Nicosia -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
