4th May

Big overseas trips don't happen to me very often, so definitely worth one blog post per day. I was travelling with BTO colleagues Andy Clements, Iain Downie and Karen Wright to visit our US counterparts at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, upstate New York on a three-day fact-finding mission. However, we'd allowed ourselves a couple of extra days at either end for sampling some New England spring birding. Warblers were very much the target!

We flew Heathrow to Detroit, watching The Big Year on the way to get us in the mood. At Detroit, just picked up a few Purple Martins, Barn Swallows and Starlings around the terminal, then three Killdeers as we taxied along the runway again to make the much shorter hop to Syracuse. From here, we picked up a hire car and set off west again, noting a few common species along the way, including Turkey Vulture, Osprey and Great Blue Heron amongst others; also a few Groundhogs by Syracuse airport, of which we saw very few more later on.

In about an hour we made it to Montezuma National Refuge, at the north end of Cayuga Lake. We were to be coming here later in the week, but it was a good stop-off, and an opportunity to get some birding under our belts before dark. As would be expected, a fair blizzard of birds proving almost overwhelming at first - so many alien sounds! I had recorded most of the species elsewhere previously, although it was great to reacquaint myself with Cedar Waxwings, Tree and Rough-winged Swallows, Song Sparrows, Eastern Bluebird, Yellow Warbler and White-crowned Sparrow. Baltimore Oriole was my first lifer of the trip - these proved to be common during the week, but always spectacular. The second tick was a real lucky one though; I picked up two American Bitterns in an extended flight across the huge reedbeds here - brilliant!

There were some decent pools with a selection of waterbirds. Amongst numerous Green-winged and Blue-winged Teals, there were a few American Wigeon and a single female Bufflehead. Waders included mostly Lesser Yellowlegs and Dunlin, but also a single Greater Yellowlegs, several Spotted Sands, two Pecs and two long-overdue lifers: Least Sandpiper and Solitary Sandpiper. Other good birds along the wildlife drive included Northern Harrier, Double-crested Cormorants, Belted Kingfisher, Bald Eagle, Pied-billed Grebe, Wood Duck and Marsh Wren. A few Muskrat nests were visible too.

At the northwest corner of the marsh we found a hedge that had some warblers in it. Really exciting as we found our first Palm Warblers, a good number of storming Yellow-rumped Warblers and a single Common Yellowthroat. By now it was getting dusky, and we were getting tired with the jet lag. We drove on to Rochester on Lake Ontario and had an Italian-ish meal, although this is now rather hazy as we were very tired. No obvious cheap places to stay so we had to use the Holiday Inn. Very overpriced, particularly as we weren't planning on staying long. But good to be able to crash out at last!

Red-winged Blackbird at Montezuma, one of the most numerous birds of the trip. They don't half make a lot of noise, and can be surprisingly tedious very quickly!