Limpkin - Lewiston, along the Niagara River
Willie D'Anna
A Limpkin was found by a local fishing guide, Frank Campbell, last Wednesday. This is the first NYS record, if accepted by the NYSARC. Frank has seen the bird several times since, including today, when he took of a photo of it and sent it to Connie Adams of the NYSDEC. Connie sent it to me to ask for an ID. I and three others converged on Lewiston Landing [eBird hotspot is called Niagara—Lewiston (NY)] and looked for over an hour with no luck. I asked Connie Adams if she could find out exactly where it was seen. She got back to me pretty soon and said that it had been there a week! She also said that it likes to hide in the bushes next to the harbor master building. Pretty strange behavior for a Limpkin! As she was telling me this, I was stopped right in front of the harbor master building. I looked at the weeds there and almost immediately I noticed some movement. It’s probably a squirrel, I thought. No way is that a Limpkin. As you probably guessed by now, it was indeed the Limpkin!
The Limpkin stayed in this patch of weeds all afternoon, except for brief forays onto the grass nearby. There are loads of snails here and it was having a feast. It looks quite healthy to me. Frank Campbell told me that he has not seen it fly but I think that’s only because it doesn’t need to, not because it is injured. Still, we will be keeping a close eye on it and will not hesitate to call a wildlife rehabilitator, if it seems to be having difficulty.
WHERE IT IS AND TIPS FOR SEEING IT: This bird should be easy to see if it stays in the same spot. If you don’t know the exact spot, it is very easy to miss, however, as we did this morning. The coordinates are 43.173805, -79.049374 Mapped pin: https://goo.gl/maps/CyuEbPmWpmwBt1DL8 This is below the cliff, down at river level. You must park above at street level and take the stairs down. For those who have difficulty walking, you can be driven down and let off at water level. Look for the blue-gray building that says “harbor master” over one of the doors. Next to it is a blue-gray shed. The weeds that it was hanging out in all day today are between those two buildings, which are only 15 feet apart. The bird sometimes moves behind one of the buildings but you can usually find it by moving around. It is close, only 30 feet or so away, though usually obscured or made invisible by weeds, and does not seem particularly concerned about people. However, please do not surround it, as it does sometimes like to come out into the open.
Now for the tricky part – the weather. A major lake-effect snowstorm is being forecast for Buffalo and points north for Friday through Sunday. Often when this happens, Lewiston may not get that much snow. However, if you take the NYS Thruway all the way to Buffalo, you could run into some major snow on those days. One option would be to take I-490 through Rochester and come along Lake Ontario. It’s a few more miles but could save you a lot of time and aggravation. So, check the radar on your weather app before you get to the Rochester exits. For Wednesday and Thursday, the snow around Lewiston should be pretty minor, though not zero. At some point Thursday evening the snow will start to move northward.
Good luck if you try to see this amazing bird!
Willie
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Willie D'Anna
Wilson, NY
dannapotterATroadrunnerDOTcom
Nancy Karp
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad
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Joel Strong
On Nov 15, 2022, at 9:13 PM, 'Nancy Karp' via Geneseebirds <genesee...@geneseo.edu> wrote:
Might we see the photo of the Limpkin? They were plentiful in the Celery Fields in Sarasoto, Fla., But in Western NY, ...almost a snowy winter? Wow!
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fototaker Tony
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