Decided instead of going to Selkirk Prov. Park for the 3rd consecutive day, I decided to take a little trip and find some shorebirds. Now, the thing about the shorebirds around here is that the majority of them migrate though here in the fall, not the spring. Don't get me wrong we still have some great birds come through in the spring like the Whimbrel I seen 2 weekends ago and the White-rumped Sandpiper I refound last weekend. That being said the numbers I get on the days I got to find shorebirds are much smaller than when I go out for Passerines.
One of the best places around to find these long-beaked birds is Townsend Sewage Lagoons, which even if it sounds pretty gross, is a goldmine at certain times of the year. The problem was that this was not that time of year...
Getting into the lagoons it started off like normal, Killdeer making a huge fuss over someone invading their regular area and Red-winged Blackbird calling in every which direction. By this point the heat was tolerable (even if I was regretting wearing jeans again). The first cell was pretty much a ghost town, just the Killdeer and a pair of Spotted Sandpiper bobbing along, also not enjoying me being there. This was routine, the first cell is usually pretty dead except for Least Sandpiper typically.
The farther I went the more I realized, this whole place was empty, except of course the 300+ Canada Geese making it very clear that they can see me. The 4th cell (the farthest from the entrance) is where last May I spotted a good size gathering of Red Knot and a small flock of Dunlin, today, nothing... oof, definitely making me question my decision here. With the shorebirds nowhere to be seen I scanned the pond and didn't find much, some Mallard were hanging around towards the middle and 4 Ruddy Duck were at the very back.
The next cell was pretty empty, besides the overflow of Geese, but there were 2 mother ducks (Wood Duck and Mallard) leading along their young in the pond. Unbothered by my presence. Love the little guys though, so cute!
The other cells did a little better, one Least Sandpiper, a pair of White-rumped Sandpiper and a quite a few Semipalmated Sandpiper as well! Unfortunately the Ruddy Turnstone I was hoping for was not there.
Just one new bird for the year today:
- Semipalmated Sandpiper (193)
Bird of the Day: White-rumped Sandpiper - these vagrant Sandpipers winter all of the way in South America and make a long trip all the way up to Nunavut for their breeding season. Non a common sight in these parts of Ontario, they typically go around our area in more of central North America so they're a pleasure to see!
26 Species - 440 Individuals
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| This male Red-winged Blackbird let me take some photos before he took off to chase a female - Haldimand ON |
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| Red-winged Blackbirds are notorious for lifting their tail when they call, its a little action you may miss if you don't watch - Haldimand ON |
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| This is just one of the 300+ Canada Geese that were present today - Haldimand ON |
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