Although it didn't strike me as a great migration night last night, the morning flight down by the lake this morning seemed active enough. In addition to a handful or warblers besides the usual Yellows overhead, I heard several calls from a DICKCISSEL over Stewart Park around 7:15 this morning, as well as decent numbers of Bobolinks and Red-winged Blackbirds.
We kayaked out around the south end for a while but did not turn up the Laughing Gull or any other interesting lake birds. Following up on Mike Tetlow's mention of a thousand Bobolinks on the Wildlife Drive, Kevin and I did the drive before the shorebird walk on Saturday. While I have been seeing flocks of a couple of hundred Bobolinks settling into the grassy areas of the Main Pool for several weeks, I have never seen anything like the numbers of Bobolinks we saw and heard Saturday morning anywhere in the Northeast. I'm not sure that many of them were actually coming from or going to the habitat on the Main Pool, but there were multiple thousands in view high in the sky out over the pool, and the cacophony of distant "bink" calls was impressive and constant for at least 20 minutes at dawn. Really an amazing sight and sound. Also, since people having been posting to the list too much lately, I thought it might we worth giving a quick rundown on fall migration. I personally have not had too much luck with migrant warblers in the last week or two, but others have a had a good variety, with many species reported, including: COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, AMERICAN REDSTART, YELLOW, MAGNOLIA, BLACKBURNIAN, CHESTNUT-SIDED, OVENBIRD, CAPE MAY, BAY-BREASTED, PINE, YELLOW-RUMPED, BLACK-THROATED GREEN, BLACK-THROATED BLUE, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, WILSON'S, MOURNING, BLUE-WINGED, BLACK-AND-WHITE, CANADA, HOODED, and PRAIRIE all reported within the last week. YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHERS are moving through in good numbers at the moment, and the first PHILADELPHIA VIREO reports are just coming in. Now is a great time to see migrating COMMON NIGHTHAWKS at dusk, and SWAINSON'S THRUSHES have already joined the other thrushes in the night migrant chorus. Good birding, Jay -- Jay McGowan Macaulay Library Cornell Lab of Ornithology jw...@cornell.edu -- 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/ --
