Blenheim White-rumped Sandpipers & Some Vitamin N

White rumped Sandpiper at Blenheim

White rumped Sandpiper at Blenheim

Huge numbers of  White rumped Sandpipers have been showing up in Ontario during their southbound migration this year. Their main migratory path is through the central provinces and states. Ontario's blogosphere (See Mike Burrell's White Rumped Sandpiper Posting) and Ebird hinted unprecedented numbers --- flocks as 100-300 were seen throughout Ontario over the last month (sightings of 1-10 birds are normally expected). I wanted to witness this specticle over the last two or three weeks, but couldn't make it out to any good shorebird habitat till this weekend. I thought I had missed the boat - but a recent e-bird posting from just this past Wednesday hinted that many were still around, as many as 60 at Blenheim SL. So after work on Friday, I checked out Blenheim and was happy to see that there were still some good shorebirds to be seen. It was very windy and very cold. It almost felt like it was going to snow actually.

White rumped Sandpipers in flight - Their long primaries extend past their tails when at rest.

Birds seen include Willet, Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs, Pectoral, Dunlin, and of course --- White rumped Sandpipers. Several American Pipits were very present as well. Savannah Sparrows were seen as well as hundreds of Rudy Ducks and Northern Shovelers in the deeper ponds.

Blenheim Shorebirds - Labeled!

American Pipit

Img Src: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-rumped_Sandpiper/lifehistory

White rumped Sandpipers have one of the farthest migrations imaginable - They breed in Canada's Arctic and they fly all the way to the southern reaches of South America during the winter.  Some cool things that these birds might observe in the Arctic Circle is the Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights. They might also witness the "midnight sun" which the arctic circle experiences - Several months of daylight - uninterrupted by a sunset and night time due to the tilt of the earth's axis.  It seems cool to think about how they chase the sun --- they are always in a constant Spring-Summer-Fall-Migrate cycle.  They arrive late in the springtime - as late as June and migrate south a little later as well. Its amazing to think that these birds , weighing only 1.4–2.1 oz (allaboutbirds) make all this effort to avoid winter and to have access to food. Its just part of their nature. Amazing.

Img Src: http://www.astro.washington.edu/courses/astro270/On-LineLectures/astro101s03_whereonearth.html

Img Src: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora

The local Essex County Field Naturalists group forwarded this video about "Vitamin N" (N for nature). Its a 10 minute presentation from an MBA grad student about nature. Its pretty good, and if you are reading this page... I'm sure you would agree whole heartedly with his message. One of the nature scenes that he provides looks to be Nova Scotia's Cabot trail if I'm not mistaken.

Click here for the link to the video: http://www.slideshare.net/StanfordBusiness/unplug-recharge-how-spending-time-in-nature-can-change-your-life

This article in the Windsor Star was about students planting Dense Blazing star in a small tallgrass prairie behind St Clair College.
http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/threatened-prairie-plant-gets-boost-at-st-clair-college


Good birding!
Dwayne

Yellowlegs

Phoebe You Say?

Say's Phoebe in Blenheim?

After work today I had read that this beautiful bird was within an hours drive of Windsor and --hesitantly-- twitched it. This wasn't a life bird for me as I had seen it out west in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley region [link].

 I realized tonight as I wrote this post that I did not really obtain great photos of the bird because I had my "butterfly watching" lens (55-250mm) instead of my 400mm prime lens that I usually use to go birding with - so the few photos that I did take are quite heavily cropped. I really just tried to enjoy the bird through my new binoculars*, and also through Jeremy B's scope. Of course, through the scope, you can really savor the intricate colours of this bird, its cute demeanor and just the overall 'gestalt' of the bird. Jeremy H and I had noted that as it was flying at one point that even the way this bird flapped its wings was interesting to observe. Most of the time that I was watching the bird, it was fly-catching quite aggressively.

Luckily, this bird really seemed to like this area and stayed in the same spot all afternoon long -- even with substantial disruptions. At one point, two farmers towed the tobacco trailers that it was perched on - but it still remained in the same field, perching on the ground or other nearby trailers, tractors and trees. It seems that lots of birders from near and far had a nice chance to see this little avian gem - if only other vagrants would be so obliging!

Good birding!
Dwayne

I picked up a new pair of Binoculars - Nikon Monarch 5's --- 8x42. More on the new optics later.