gmr044@leah.Albany.Edu (Gregg Recer) (09/06/90)
Greetings all,
My wife and I took a long weekend over labor day and went to Cape
Cod for birding and bicycling. Both activities were very productive.
We took a Mass. Audubon-led half-day trip to N. Monomoy Island (just
off the coast from Chatham). The shorebirding there was good,
although not as spectacular as I've read it could be -- I realize one
day is not a very good measure of the overall productivity of the
place. Anyway, the shorebird list included hudsonian godwits,
black-bellied and semipalmated plovers, Am. oystercatchers, and
semipalm., least, western sandpipers as well as greater and lesser
yellowlegs, short-billed dowitcher and whimbrel. The three hot birds
seen earlier in the week, marbled godwit, curlew sandpiper and
buff-breasted sandpiper were all, alas, no-shows. Apparently it was
too early for any coastal hawk migrants as we saw not a one. Also,
the passerine migration seemed still to be dead-the-water out there.
Upon returning home our local club's hotline, updated on 8/31, was
also bemoaning the lack of migrant reports. Are people in other areas
having similarly slow fall migrations so far?
Gregg
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"In future you should delete the words crunchy frog and
replace them with the legend crunchy raw unboned real
dead frog!!"
-- Inspector Bradshaw, The Hygiene Division
*******************************************************************************sid@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Sid Johnson WB6VWH) (09/07/90)
In article <3598@leah.Albany.Edu> gmr044@leah.Albany.Edu (Gregg Recer) writes: > > My wife and I took a long weekend over labor day and went to Cape >Cod for birding and bicycling. Both activities were very productive. >place. Anyway, the shorebird list included hudsonian godwits, >black-bellied and semipalmated plovers, Am. oystercatchers, and >semipalm., least, western sandpipers as well as greater and lesser >yellowlegs, short-billed dowitcher and whimbrel. The three hot birds >seen earlier in the week, marbled godwit, curlew sandpiper and >buff-breasted sandpiper were all, alas, no-shows. Apparently it was >Upon returning home our local club's hotline, updated on 8/31, was >also bemoaning the lack of migrant reports. Are people in other areas >having similarly slow fall migrations so far? > >Gregg It has been slow here but it is picking up in So Calif. We drove out to the Lancaster sewer ponds Sun 9/2 to check out shorebirds there. The ponds were slow but offered excellent views Of Wilson's and Red- necked Phalaropes plus Least Sandpiper. From there we went to Piute ponds, 500 acres of marshland in the middle of the Mohave desert, formed by the sewer pond outfall. Birding there was very good. We saw the birds you mentioned minus Hudsonian Godwits and Ostercatcher. In addition, Marbled Godwits (too bad we couldn't trade Godwits); Solitary Sandpiper; Clapper and Virginia Rails; Black-necked Stilt; Am Avocet; Killdeer; Willet; Caspian Tern and Am Pipit. Passerines included Yellow-headed Blackbird, Comman Yellow-throat and Yellow Warbler and, of course, Marsh Wrens. There was a flycatcher too but the little monster refused to allow a good enough look for in ID. We saw no raptors either. Not even a Red-tail. Just Ravens and crows When we arrived home, about 3PM the yard was full of Warblers. Orange- crowned and Nashville. Next morning they were gone. Wilson's are reported to be around too but I haven't seen one. It was a heck of a good day. -Sid