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

Some Migration Highlights & a Failed Pointe Mouillee Trip

I've been busy with work, night school and the kids' swimming lessons ... I should really be in 'hiatus' mode, but I still have tried to find time to get some birding in - even its just close to home in Windsor. I've seen some surprisingly nice flocks of birds during my Ojibway walks - one highlight being a Blue winged Warbler - maybe one of my first of this species outside of Point Pelee and first "southbound" Blue winged that I recall seeing.  Other nice birds at Ojibway included nice looks at a Yellow billed Cuckoo, Tufted Titmouse - A local specialty - as well as some wild flowers - Great Lobelia & Nodding Ladies Tresses (or Great Plains Tresses?). Special thanks to Allen Woodliffe's blog for help on ID'ing the flowers.

 

I've also tried going to Holiday Beach in Amherstburg to join in the Hawk-festival festivities and just doing some birding around there. In September, the warblers and paserines at Holiday Beach are excellent...just as good or maybe better than what I see when I go to Point Pelee. Last weekend, a little walk along the beach gave looks at tonnes of passerines. I think they banded 150 warblers/thrushes/vireos and flycatchers. I had looks at Great crested Flycatchers, Wilson's Warblers, Magnolia, Black throated Blue, American Redstarts, Black and White, Blackpoll Warblers, not to mention great looks at Raptors flying overhead.

I attempted to go to Pointe Mouillee for some shorebirding last weekend, but after packing my van up with my bike... I realized that they close Pointe Mouillee in the peak of shorebird migration... Life can be so cruel some times. Its closed to anyone but hunters - but I was thinking, could you not go into the location and just not shot birds? Could you go hunting but bring a scope instead of a rifle?

Since I had a Pointe Mouillee trip failure - I figured I would post some shorebirding I did last year at this time, but never got around to posting. I had kayaked the Point Pelee Marsh and found a small muddy island peninsula that I just grounded my kayak onto. A few shorebirds were around, notably a Pectoral, Short billed Dowitcher and a White rumped Sandpiper! I have had bad luck with White rumped Sandpipers. I'm quite certain this is one - an adult too-  I think!
 

After work today, I was lucky enough to witness a major Broad-winged Hawk Migration today at Holiday Beach.  Thousands of them kettled and streamed by along with a great diversity of other raptors. More on that in my next posting!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Comber Shorebirding Still Excellent...v3

There are five Species in this photo... You gotta love shorebirding!

Ok, this is my last Comber Shorebirding posting... I promise!!! :-)   I went after work on Thursday this week. It was cloudy but I figured I'd go anyway. I figured shorebirding will give some variety that I am not getting so much of at Holiday Beach's Raptor Festival (aka Hawktoberfest). Anyway, I walked through the muddy field in Comber to see what was out there and well... It's still pretty good! 20 Hudsonian Godwits, and 7 Long billed Dowitchers along with hundreds of Black bellied Plovers and fewer Golden Plovers in the mix.  White rumped Sandpipers, a single Juv Baird's along with Pectoral Sandpipers were around as well.

This photo below is pretty cool. The resting shorebirds flew up at one point and I took a few photos. I left this full size and uncropped. I enjoy just scanning through this image and seeing how many birds I can see. Blogger has been implementing a feature to browse the images in a given posting, but I prefer just seeing the original. If you want to see the original even in that tool, you can click the link that is referenced at the bottom of the page to see the original. 

Sleeping (Juv) White rumped Sandpipers

7 Long billed Dowitchers.  A Black bellied Plover on the left and a Golden on the right.

Juv Baird's Sandpiper.

Its funny how during my 1-hr birding session, I didn't see a single person. I didn't say a single word. I just made my way out into this field, chosing a path that best allowed me not to get muddy and also would be the best approach in an effort not to flush the resting shorebirds. I would walk 10m then stop, look around through binoculars, consider a 'path' to take then walk another 10m, crouch down, stay crouched, take photos, and so on. One cool thing I noticed about shorebirding was that if you just stand there (at 30m or so) and just wait, some birds will leave periodically and some will arrive making the viewing experience surprisingly dynamic. The "Bairds" above (I might be mistaken... it could be a white rumped) was not in this group of birds but just ended up flying in by itself. It orientated itself with the other birds and went on its way with foraging etc. So cool to witness nature like this. So few other people do it... its what makes birding so fun in my opinion.

 

Next weekend I will go back to Holiday Beach and hopefully see some late October raptors. I'm really hoping to see a Saw-whet Owl this fall.  Even though this posting is a little repetitive from the last, I still like posting some photos online or else they are easily forgotten. Also, one day I am going to go through and put all my birding trips into E-Bird.
Good birding!-Dwaynejava

As requested: Map Directions. Sorry I didn't post this earlier, I assumed readers had the original Ontbirds Posting.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=42.285040+,+-82.548441&hl=en&ll=42.287897,-82.549124&spn=0.008191,0.01929&sll=42.285993,-82.548051&sspn=0.008191,0.01929&vpsrc=0&gl=ca&t=h&z=16

About 20 Godwits congregated after being flushed by a Northern Harrier

Better looks at Hudsonian Godwits and Other Shorebirds in Comber

Wow... after talking to Blake Mann and Ellen Smout over the weekend, it was suggested that the best viewing was in later afternoon, as the sun setting in the west would give nice front-lit views of some incredible shorebirds. So at about 5pm today, I politely excused myself from Thanksgiving festivities and headed out to Comber for a quick 30-minute birding session. Glad I did... check out some of the pics below.

A Hudsonian Godwit flies above 20 resting shorebirds in this tightly cropped photo. Incredible.

Juv. White rumped Sandpiper (I think...)

from yesterday... Golden Plovers

Dunlin and White Rumped Sandpipers

Mix of shorebirds on the east end of the tomato field

Thanks to Ellen Smout for sharing this great find. I lifered three birds this weekend!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

Bonus! 20 Seconds of video of Hudsonian Godwits preening and sleeping.



Lifer Summary:

American Golden Plover #284
Hudsonian Godwit #285
White rumped Sandpiper #286