Hello Ontbirders Bill Gilmour and I did the weekly IBA shorebird survey on the Presqu'ile beach this morning. We saw 86 birds of 11 species, with the vast majority located on Gull Island. In order to see the birds on Gull Island (which is off-limits until 10 Sep) you need a scope with at least 30x, and it is best to look early in the morning before heat haze wipes out the clarity. The best places to look are from Owen Pt. and Lookout #3 (to see the north side of Gull Is.) and it may be worth watching for a while as there will almost certainly be birds out of view for periods at a time. The birds were fairly flighty today as well. There were no unexpected finds with the highlights being 2 juv. Knot and 3 juv. Turnstone. I don't think I can ever remember there being so few birds present in the last half of August in 30 years of shorebirding at Presqu'ile. Lets hope the cold front changes things around.
Results: 2 Black-b Plover (2a) 25 Semipalmated Plover (1a,24j) 1 Killdeer (1a) 2 Spotted S/p (1a,1j) 3 R Turnstone (3j) 2 Red Knot (2j) 7 Sanderling (3a,4j) 30 Semipalmated S/p (30j) 11 Least S/p (11j) 2 White-rumped S/p (2a) 1 Baird's S/p (1j) Bill Gilmour also had a juv. Dunlin and the 1st juv. Black-bellied Plover of the year yesterday on the beach but we couldn't find them for the survey. Cheers, Doug McRae Directions: Presqu'ile is best reached by taking the Brighton exit off Hwy 401 and heading south into town; then follow the signs for Presqu'ile. Doug McRae <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Visit http://www.ofo.ca/ontbirdsguide.htm for information on leaving and joining the list. As well as general information and content guidelines.
