Timiskaming Birds Forum

Today in a wet plowed field at the north end of Earlton, there was a wide variety of shorebirds. The first to catch my eye and induce me stop for a look were many Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs. There were also about 60-70 killdeer, and a variety of peeps.  I'm sure there were White-rumped and Bairds Sandpipers mixed in with the peeps, as well as a couple of Solitary Sandpipers and at least one Pectoral. I also saw one Semipalmated Plover - had to look twice with all those Killdeers around.  It was a nice mix!

I did not spend a lot of time focusing on the above mixture, though, since out in the middle of the field was a flock of 17 large plovers that, after a couple of hours of straining my eyes through binoculars I'm sure were American Golden Plovers. They were very well camouflaged, and often disappeared when they stopped moving. Try as I might, I could not get any decent pictures - light was dim and I could not manage to get any closer.  The field was a thick mire of very soft muck that could not be walked on (or in).  When I get home this evening, I'll have a look through the photos I took, and if there's anything worth posting, I'll append it to this thread.

Also, I think there may have been a few Buff-breasted Sandpipers foraging around the edges of the same area that the Golden's were in. I've read that they will often be found migrating with American Golden and Black-bellied Plovers. I'm not at all familiar with this species, though, so I hope I got something through the lens that can substantiate this.  Buff-breasted Sandpiper would be a new species for the Timiskaming Check List.  Again, if I got any photos that show these birds as more than a small fuzzy smear, I'll post this evening.  I had to quit when my camera battery died, and since I was not travelling in my normal vehicle, I did not have a spare battery available.

I originally left the site at about 1:15 pm. I stopped to have a quick look on my way back home at 6:00pm and pretty much everything was still there, including the American Golden Plovers. There were also a few newcomers - namely a small flock of Ravens and a bunch of gulls.  I'm going to go have a look at my photos from earlier today now. Cheers.

I checked things out this afternoon. I found the Yellowlegs, likely Lesser & Greater, the Killdeer, likely the Golden Plover from a distance. I have fuzzy pictures from a distance. I have these birds: could these be Sanderlings, by reason of the black "shoulder" mark? Perhaps it is just a shadow? Whoops! Flickr has changed, and I can't seem to be able to insert a picture anymore.

Here are some of the photos of the American Golden Plovers...

And now for some of the Buff-breasted Sandpiper.  I'm really pleased that some of these shots turned out well enough to be able to substantiate the identification.  There were at least two of these, mixed in with 17 American Golden Plovers.  As mentioned earlier, this is a new species for the Timiskaming Checklist. It is also a "lifer" bird for me.  The Golden Plovers are also a "lifer" for me. Two lifer birds on the same day - and I wasn't even planning to go birding today (I was actually on my way to the office.) All of these photos, as well as those of the American Golden Plovers above, are unedited 100% crops of the out-of-camera jpegs.

Hard to identify your birds from the photo, Serge, since size is difficult to estimate here. It's possible that the one at the back could be a Pectoral. I suspect the others are Semipalmated.

Hi Serge,

Sanderling looks black and white in august (mostly white). No brown or rufous at first look.

Mike,

Buff-breasted is a terrific shot!  It might be a couple of years before somebody sees one around.  I never saw it before.  We are not really in the funnel that leads to Argentina!  Books say that they prefer dryer habitat than other calidris.  The right place, the right time

I did not see any shorebirds on Monday at the location where I saw the Buff-breasted Sandpipers, but on my way home this evening there were many shorebirds present.  The American Golden Plovers were absent, but both of the Buff-breasted Sandpipers were there, along with Killdeers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs and Least Sandpipers.  I got some decent views in good light for about 10 minutes before a marauding Merlin swooped in and caused the whole lot to take flight and disappear.

 I was there the other day and got off quite a few shots of various shorebirds before a hawk also flew over and cleared the area. I have a hard time with shorebirds. Mike, is this a buff-breasted?

Here are three different birds in one photo. I take it the larger one is a Greater Yellowlegs...

Sorry Serge - not a Buff-breasted. The strong supercillial line on the bird in your photo rules it out.  Also, the breast is not "buffy" enough. Judging the size relative to the closer Yellowlegs, I'd say it's one of the larger peeps (a collective name referring generally to the small, short-legged sandpipers), but can't be sure from the photo which one.

I checked the location again on the way home today. There were still about a half dozen Lesser Yellowlegs present, about eight Least Sandpipers and a couple of Semipalmated Sandpipers. The Killdeers, which were so abundant there for the last few days, were not at all in evidence this evening, and there were no Buff-breasted Sandpipers around either.  Pectoral and Solitary Sandpipers were also gone from the mix. If the weather continues to dry out as per the forecast for the next week or so, this will quickly cease to be a good spot for finding shorebirds.

 Thanks for the help Mike. That was an exciting find you got, and it provided me with a nice "rush" of bird watching. I'm hoping for more in the coming weeks. Even if I can't add Buff-breasted Sandpiper to my list, I can now add several others. I feel like going back out to look elsewhere... but, I will have to at least wait for daylight, except maybe for owls...

Sewage lagoons should be good untill the end of september if you have access.

amazing work mike very cool well done and congrats on 2 knew lifers

 About a dozen and a half Golden Plovers were back in that field this morning near Noon today.