Common, Forster's and Black Terns on one of the "islands" out in West Cranberry Pond, Point Pelee National Park. The pink along the far shoreline is all Swamp Rose Mallow.I got out of work early, as did Aaron, so we went to West Cranberry Pond, Point Pelee, on the Civic Holiday Monday.
There is some great shorebird habitat out there and we did see some shorebirds. I also got a small video of the Sandhill Crane pair (set it to the 720p for sharpest image)...sorry it is a little shaky at first:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDPBWu53Yc4As for the shorebirds they were great! Nothing fancy out there, but this time the shorebirds were not as approachable as we usually find them, so counting individual birds proved difficult.
A lot of Semipalmated Sandpipers, a couple of Least, 14 Semipalmated Plovers, 12 Short-billed Dowitchers, 4 Pectoral Sandpipers, 5 Spotted Sandpipers, 6 Killdeer, 4 Spotted Sandpipers and 4 Lesser Yellowlegs was really all I counted. I think these numbers are a little low, but because the birds were so skittish I stopped counting as I think I probably would have recounted some.
Other highlights included a flock of 45 Black Terns, and another 40 at least out on an island with other gulls and terns. We also had 3 Ruddy Duck.
I also checked out Seacliff Beach today. This proved difficult because children and adults alike were walking/running through the flocks of gulls and terns. I did see an adult Ruddy Turnstone though.
Hi Pelee Chickadee.
ReplyDeleteSo that is where some of the Short-billed Dowitchers are hiding.
Must be lots of shorebirds to come, as there have not been many yet this summer.
Cool place! Living in the desert, I can't wait to see some shorebirds on my trip to Willcox tomorrow.
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