Peter James Fullagar: Day Five

May 17th

A day exploring the shoreline of the Bay with Clive, Pablo and Victor northwards to as far as Fortescue. First, we headed to Thompson's point where a team from the Audubon Centre was mist netting Semipalmated Sandpipers and Least Sandpipers on the high tide. When we got there they said that the catch had been poor and the water level was getting too high to continue netting. On the way out we see a couple of Common Merganser on a pool close beside the road.

The "Semipalm" banding team at Thompson's -
a small biting midge paradise!

Tidal marshes at Thomson's.
These have been consolidating in the years since I last visited

Sub-adult Herring Gull

Banding a Least Sandpiper

Barn Swallow collecting nesting material

Glossy Ibis silhouetted

Heaps of pictures of Least Sandpiper

We moved on to Heislerville where the concentration of small shorebirds was fantastic. At least 22 000 had been counted the day before. Only a week before the basin was full of water but draining it had provided excellent high tide roosting areas for many species. Largely Semipalmated Sandpipers, but also many Dunlin, Black-bellied (Grey) Plover and Short-billed Dowitchers. A scattering of other species with noisy Semipalmated Plovers, at least one White-rumped Sandpiper and a Curlew sandpiper in reasonable alternate plumage. The latter was attracting much attention being a rarity hereabouts. A few gulls on the mud banks, mostly Ringbilled Gull but including at least one Boneparte's Gull. A fantastic place!

Heislerville. Overlooking the impressive gathering of about 20 000 shorebirds!
Lower picture shows the bank dividing the pool from the tidal marshes

Huge assemblage of smaller shorebirds - about 20 000 all told!

Distant but distinctive view of a White-rumped Sandpiper

Semipalmated Plover

Semipalmated Plover and Short-billed Dowitcher

Short-billed Dowitcher

Massed shorebirds at Heislerville
Semipalmated Sandpiper and a few Semipalmated Plover

Brood of Greater Canada Geese

We then moved on to Fortescue for Red Knot flag scanning. We were very successful at this with sightings of several birds marked in Chile, even more from Argentina and a Brazilian marked bird apart form many locally flagged individuals. The bugs got worse and worse as the wind dropped and eventually drove us off! Then followed a quick dash back to the Audubon Centre at Goshen to see if we could buy some bug-shirts for our two Mexicans. We thought it closed at 4PM but in fact it closes at 4:30PM!