Shorebirds!

Saturday morning I went birding with Chris Street and Tom Thomas, heading down to Wildwood Reservoir near Stratford, then up through Hamilton/Burlington to Smithville and back to Guelph. It was a good day despite the rain, and I got 4 new Ontario birds. At Wildwood, the main attraction was an American White Pelican, but I had seen this species in the spring at the Locks so was more interested in the shorebirds. Our list at the end of the hour scanning the mudflats was:

Semipalmated Plover - 6
Killdeer - 100+
Lesser Yellowlegs - 4
Least Sandpiper - 2
Pectoral Sandpiper - 30+
Dunlin - 1
Stilt Sandpiper - 3
Long-billed Dowitcher - 3

The ones in bold were new for my Ontario list, and at one point I had all three in one scope view! There were also a ton of Great Blue Herons around fishing, and quite a few canada geese. Not much else around, so we dropped Tom off and headed down to Smithville, where we saw a Common Moorhen that had been breeding in the sewage lagoons. My fourth new bird of the day, and one I hadn't been expecting to see until next spring.

After reviewing my Ontario list, I found that I missed two birds on the list! Vesper Sparrow and Eastern Towhee were missing from several years ago. That means that I was actually at 262 before I came down here, which also means that I am now at 268 and have passed my Michigan list, with the Common Moorhen! One step closer to my goal of 300 by the end of university.

On a Rainy...Wednesday?

Ok, so some of the readers here (if there are any??? Please comment!!!) might not get the song reference that is the title today (Rainy Monday - Shiny Toy Guns), but it was indeed rainy. Nonetheless, I figured it'd be good at the Locks, so I drove down there in the rain. Luckily, I brought an umbrella, but I still got pretty wet. It was pretty good despite the rain, with 63 species. 9 species of shorebirds was definitely the highlight, with 60 birds total, not a number you usually see around the Sault! Also had quite a few Lapland Longspurs, some of which were almost in breeding plumage. New for the year were 12 Semipalmated Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, Common Yellowthroat, Magnolia Warbler, and Canada Warbler.