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Posted by Toe on 11:26:55 08/05/06
Trey and I did a little morning tour in hopes of located some shorebirds. Our first stop was the scraped area at SW 147 Ave. and 328 St. The phalaropes were not there and neither were most shorebirds from two days ago. We only saw a handful of Least, Western, and Semipalm Sandpipers, about 15 birds in total. There were only about 30 gulls and yes, they were all still Laughing! We checked out the area east of here and north of the racetrack but didn't find any shorebirds. The fields are just not in the right condition.
We then headed to 97 Ave. on the west side of the landfill and scanned with the scope from Gate C. In a pond inside the landfill complex we saw Stilt, Pectoral, Western, Least, and Semipalm Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs, Semipalm Plovers, and Ruddy Turnstones.
Further up on 97th, by Cutler Wetlands, we found a Solitary Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, and Lesser Yellowlegs on the south shore of the lake. The east bank had a small number of peeps. The small retention area north of 224th St. had about half a dozen Least Sandpipers. Cutler Wetlands itself had no shorebirds at first, but we did see a very interesting bird for this site: a Least Bittern flew over the southern portions. With the vegetation growing the habitat is no longer good for shorebirds but may be the right habitat for other cool things like bitterns. The northern part of Cutler Wetlands still has open water and with the level dropping is beginning to expose some mud. As we were leaving a flock of about 10 peeps landed in the grassy area near the northern boundary.
Not much else except for Barn Swallows, Killdeer, and Black-necked Stilts at all the stops. Trey is having his new lens fixed, and was less than enthusiastic about taking pictures with his old one. If we had seen something really cool he may have made an effort. Yesterday, during the afternoon storms a flock of mostly Barn Swallows over my house had a couple of Cliffs mixed in. I also had a bunch of Gnatcatchers which hadn't been around until recently. Time to get out and look for migrants.
I don't want to get in trouble with Paul B., but life SUCKS, not having any shorebird habitat within 100 miles.
Toe
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