[cayugabirds-l] Why larger predatory birds flee smaller birds

[Dave Nutter]

As I drove south on NYS-89 west of Cayuga Lake this afternoon I saw a 
Red-tailed Hawk ahead, flying vigorously alongside the road, apparently having 
just been persuaded by an Eastern Kingbird to vacate a typical perch atop a 
power pole. As they crossed in front of me, the Kingbird closed the gap 
completely and appeared to land and remain between the shoulders of the flying 
hawk. They disappeared, still attached, behind farm buildings before I could 
tell what damage the Kingbird inflicted, but I bet it was pretty uncomfortable. 
Meanwhile second Kingbird had also joined the chase.

--Dave Nutter

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[cayugabirds-l] Re: [cayugabirds-l] This morning's Montezuma shorebirds walk, and future?

[Dave Nutter]

Correction on the shorebird list: it should say "Semipalmated Plover - a 
couple" after Killdeer.

So far I have one volunteer co-teacher next weekend, preferably Sunday again, 
and one maybe participant.

--Dave Nutter

On Jul 17, 2016, at 08:28 PM, Dave Nutter  wrote:


How much interest is there in doing a trip next weekend? Please reply to me 
ASAP.



Thanks to Andrea Van Beusichem and Linda Ziemba at Montezuma NWR, this morning 
we had a shorebird walk on the dikes at Knox-Marsellus and Puddler Marshes, 
where the public is otherwise prohibited. With 5 days notice as a single 
message on CayugaBirds-L, forwarded to Oneidabirds, plus whatever publicity 
happened at the refuge, we garnered 25 participants, a mix of expert 
ornithologists with big lens cameras, dedicated experienced amateurs with 
scopes, and birders of various other levels eager to learn. I want to 
particularly thank Bob McGuire for helping teach, as well as anyone else who 
was helping beyond my hearing as we spread out. Next time, if there is interest 
in a next time, I am thinking of more formally getting any volunteer teachers 
who attend, such as Bob and myself today, directly grouped with people who want 
to learn, so that there is no hesitation to ask questions or use teachers' 
scopes, and I think I can concentrate on more teaching in the future now that I 
am warmed up for the season.



Good shorebird habitat is relatively limited to the north and east sides of 
each impoundment because drought has lowered the water level, yet there has 
been enough rain for vegetation to thoroughly cover what in a 'normal' year 
would have been distant and gradually moving fingers of water and mud. The 
shorebirds are now closer to the dikes as would be expected a month or two 
later in the season. We got good scope views without heat shimmer, but the 
habitat may not last the season here, and I don't know if it will be extensive 
enough to draw the large numbers of shorebirds when the juveniles and uncommon 
species would be expected a month from now. (Don't despair: as Pete Saracino 
wrote, and Linda Ziemba repeated to me this afternoon, the refuge plans to make 
available as shorebird habitat succession of areas along the Wildlife Drive 
despite the drought). Another issue is that, between the dike 'road', where we 
walked and stood, and the water and mud we were looking at, the vegetation was 
pretty tall, particularly some type of wild carrot, making aiming scopes a bit 
tricky. I don't know whether or when refuge staff might be able to lower some 
of this or cut a few windows. Anyway, my thought is to schedule these trips a 
week at a time rather than commit to a whole season of walks on these dikes, so 
I want to gauge interest for next week.



We took a leisurely 3 hour walk from the East Road overlook along the north 
side of K-M and around the bend a short distance along the east side of K-M. 
From that vantage, Puddler seemed not to harbor shorebirds so we didn't go 
there, nor did there appear to be additional species of shorebirds farther 
south along the east side of K-M. We saw at least 9 species of shorebirds, with 
excellent scope views of them all:



Killdeer - several

Semipalmated Sandpiper - a couple

Spotted Sandpiper - several

Solitary Sandpipe - (irony alert!) a couple

Lesser Yellowlegs - several

Least Sandpiper - many

Semipalmated Sandpiper - a few

Pectoral Sandpiper - 1 (early enough to be labeled rare by eBird but not rare 
later on)

Short-billed Dowitcher - 5



There may also have been a Greater Yellowlegs that I missed, but I did see one 
later at Eaton Marsh on the Wildlife Drive, so this species is not absent from 
the area. The rare/early Long-billed Dowitcher identified by experts at a 
distance recently was not to be found.



Other cool birds I recall offhand included:

16 brown Sandhill Cranes

several female & or immature Baltimore Orioles

a singing Indigo Bunting which provided great views to some folks

Caspian Tern adults flying and resting

Black Terns flying, both in breeding and non-breeding plumage

at least 1 of the 2 recent domestic Graylag Geese raising its periscope from 
the dense high vegetation

a singing Willow Flycatcher conveniently perched in its namesake

a ragged molting male Bobolink



After the main walk, 7 of us explored the dikes entering from Towpath Road, 
which is dry but bumpily slow-going. On the open mud near a large cattail stand 
in the southeast corner of K-M we saw at least 3, maybe 4, immature Virginia 
Rails, plus another in the channel beside Towpath Road, all of which could be 
scoped without going past the 'authorized personnel only' signs. These may be 
some members of the flock of 7 downy black chicks Ann Mitchell and I saw with 
an adult a few weeks ago. Today we did not see or hear any Least Bittern in 
this cattail stand even though a bird had been calling there a lot a few weeks 
ago. Maybe they gave up on that site when the 

[cayugabirds-l] This morning's Montezuma shorebirds walk, and future?

[Dave Nutter]

How much interest is there in doing a trip next weekend? Please reply to me 
ASAP.



Thanks to Andrea Van Beusichem and Linda Ziemba at Montezuma NWR, this morning 
we had a shorebird walk on the dikes at Knox-Marsellus and Puddler Marshes, 
where the public is otherwise prohibited. With 5 days notice as a single 
message on CayugaBirds-L, forwarded to Oneidabirds, plus whatever publicity 
happened at the refuge, we garnered 25 participants, a mix of expert 
ornithologists with big lens cameras, dedicated experienced amateurs with 
scopes, and birders of various other levels eager to learn. I want to 
particularly thank Bob McGuire for helping teach, as well as anyone else who 
was helping beyond my hearing as we spread out. Next time, if there is interest 
in a next time, I am thinking of more formally getting any volunteer teachers 
who attend, such as Bob and myself today, directly grouped with people who want 
to learn, so that there is no hesitation to ask questions or use teachers' 
scopes, and I think I can concentrate on more teaching in the future now that I 
am warmed up for the season.



Good shorebird habitat is relatively limited to the north and east sides of 
each impoundment because drought has lowered the water level, yet there has 
been enough rain for vegetation to thoroughly cover what in a 'normal' year 
would have been distant and gradually moving fingers of water and mud. The 
shorebirds are now closer to the dikes as would be expected a month or two 
later in the season. We got good scope views without heat shimmer, but the 
habitat may not last the season here, and I don't know if it will be extensive 
enough to draw the large numbers of shorebirds when the juveniles and uncommon 
species would be expected a month from now. (Don't despair: as Pete Saracino 
wrote, and Linda Ziemba repeated to me this afternoon, the refuge plans to make 
available as shorebird habitat succession of areas along the Wildlife Drive 
despite the drought). Another issue is that, between the dike 'road', where we 
walked and stood, and the water and mud we were looking at, the vegetation was 
pretty tall, particularly some type of wild carrot, making aiming scopes a bit 
tricky. I don't know whether or when refuge staff might be able to lower some 
of this or cut a few windows. Anyway, my thought is to schedule these trips a 
week at a time rather than commit to a whole season of walks on these dikes, so 
I want to gauge interest for next week.



We took a leisurely 3 hour walk from the East Road overlook along the north 
side of K-M and around the bend a short distance along the east side of K-M. 
From that vantage, Puddler seemed not to harbor shorebirds so we didn't go 
there, nor did there appear to be additional species of shorebirds farther 
south along the east side of K-M. We saw at least 9 species of shorebirds, with 
excellent scope views of them all:



Killdeer - several

Semipalmated Sandpiper - a couple

Spotted Sandpiper - several

Solitary Sandpipe - (irony alert!) a couple

Lesser Yellowlegs - several

Least Sandpiper - many

Semipalmated Sandpiper - a few

Pectoral Sandpiper - 1 (early enough to be labeled rare by eBird but not rare 
later on)

Short-billed Dowitcher - 5



There may also have been a Greater Yellowlegs that I missed, but I did see one 
later at Eaton Marsh on the Wildlife Drive, so this species is not absent from 
the area. The rare/early Long-billed Dowitcher identified by experts at a 
distance recently was not to be found.



Other cool birds I recall offhand included:

16 brown Sandhill Cranes

several female & or immature Baltimore Orioles

a singing Indigo Bunting which provided great views to some folks

Caspian Tern adults flying and resting

Black Terns flying, both in breeding and non-breeding plumage

at least 1 of the 2 recent domestic Graylag Geese raising its periscope from 
the dense high vegetation

a singing Willow Flycatcher conveniently perched in its namesake

a ragged molting male Bobolink



After the main walk, 7 of us explored the dikes entering from Towpath Road, 
which is dry but bumpily slow-going. On the open mud near a large cattail stand 
in the southeast corner of K-M we saw at least 3, maybe 4, immature Virginia 
Rails, plus another in the channel beside Towpath Road, all of which could be 
scoped without going past the 'authorized personnel only' signs. These may be 
some members of the flock of 7 downy black chicks Ann Mitchell and I saw with 
an adult a few weeks ago. Today we did not see or hear any Least Bittern in 
this cattail stand even though a bird had been calling there a lot a few weeks 
ago. Maybe they gave up on that site when the water under the cattails dried 
up. Another interesting sighting from here was all the distant gulls and 
shorebirds in the northeast part of K-M flushing due to an aggressively diving 
raptor which turned out to be a male Northern Harrier, a species that typically 
cruises benignly over low 

[cayugabirds-l] New yard birds: BB Cuckoos and Woodcock!

[Marie P. Read]

HI all,

When a sleek rusty bird with a long tail landed in one of the cottonwoods along 
the stream on my property, I immediately thought "cuckoo", particularly after 
it gave a harsh call that even caught my non-birder hubby's attention. Indeed 
it was a Black-billed Cuckoo. It started pecking a web-covered twig, from the 
bottom of which suddenly poured numerous tiny caterpillars, hurrying as fast as 
a caterpillar CAN hurry down silken threads that presumably they had just 
dropped from their rapidly disintegrating webby home. It was pretty amusing to 
watch. The cuckoo got plenty though, and then I realized there were actually 
two cuckoos, the other one nearby that took over when the first finished 
snacking.

That species counts as a yard first, a deck first, and a while-eating-breakfast 
first ;-)

Another yard bird: during the past two weeks we've been flushing an American 
Woodcock regularly from the vicinity of our compost heap. Neither of us has 
been able to sneak up on it while it's still on the ground to get a better 
look, but its gorgeous rufous color and bold black stripes on either side of 
its dorsal surface as it flies off are pretty distinctive. The compost heap is 
a bit up from the bank of the stream and the woodcock flies off into the beaver 
meadow next door, which is pretty good habitat for that species.

These 2 new yard birds brings the number of species I've seen perched in or 
flying over my yard during the past 32 years to 92!

Marie


Marie Read Wildlife Photography
452 Ringwood Road
Freeville NY  13068 USA

Phone  607-539-6608
e-mail   m...@cornell.edu

Website: http://www.marieread.com
Follow me on Facebook:  
https://www.facebook.com/Marie-Read-Wildlife-Photography-104356136271727/
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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/

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