On Saturday, August 31st, Rick Poulin found a group of American Golden Plovers at the intersection of Twin Elm Road and Barnsdale. I got by just before dark to have a look, without my camera. I had never seen a group this large in all my years of birding. A very cool sight.
I really hadn’t planned on going back and was just about to go with Sue and the dog for a walk at the park, the phone rang. Rick was calling to let me know that a pair of Pectoral Sandpipers had just landed amongst the Plovers.
Normally I would have gone for the walk but I needed a Pectoral Sandpiper for my big year, so off I went.
Arriving at the spot, it didn’t take long to see that the Plover numbers had increased from 14 the night before to 23. Also present was a Short-billed Dowitcher, 4 Killdeer, a Horned Lark, 2 Pectoral Sandpipers and over a hundred Ring-billed Gulls.
As a group of us were watching the birds a Peregrine Falcon zoomed in, trying for an easy meal. I managed a few shots but when I processed them the sky color was horrible, so I Photoshopped in a blue sky.
We decided to take a drive to the Almonte Sewage Lagoons, where the highlight was a Red-necked Phalarope. There were Pectoral, Least, Semi-palmed Sandpipers and many of both Yellowlegs.
In the field there were hundreds of Clouded Sulphurs and a lone Giant Swallowtail. And after many years of trying I finally got an image of an Eastern Tailed Blue with its wings open.
Ciao for now
BIRDQUEST2004 