A few notes from Monticello Wastewater Plant

I made a visit to the  Monticello Wastewater Plant shortly after sunrise yesterday.  The ibis roost had already dispersed; there was just one adult, and a few Great Egrets were fishing along the edge.  A half dozen Cattle Egrets sitting idly.  Hundreds of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks were present, and flocks were arriving- presumably coming in from their nocturnal foraging forays.  Seems this must be a morning as well as dusk gathering area.  An Anhinga was on the edge, as were a dozen or so Common Grackles.

About twenty Ring-billed Gulls were perched on the infrastructure in the distance.  A Red-shouldered Hawk was on the edge of a building overlooking a pond, intently staring downward, presumably looking for prey (they are a sit-and-watch predator).  A Cooper's Hawk was sitting atop a chimney on the large white administration builiding in the southeast corner.

A single Red-winged Blackbird was posturing and singing in the middle of the willow patch the ibis roost in.  I can only imagine what it will be like if he attracts a female to nest there, inundated by ibis each night.

A lone Spotted Sandpiper was poking around the cement edge of one of the drained enclosures.  Two Double-crested Cormorants were swimming in another as if fishing- though I can't imagine there was anything to catch there.

Peter