At 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 4th, 2005 this is the HNC Birding Report: Great Blue Heron Great Egret Black-crowned Night Heron Peregrine Falcon Semipalmated Plover Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Solitary Sandpiper Willet Spotted Sandpiper Semipalmated Sandpiper Least Sandpiper White-rumped Sandpiper * Baird's Sandpiper Pectoral Sandpiper Short-billed Dowitcher * Long-billed Dowitcher * Caspian Tern Common Tern Ruby-throated Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Warbling Vireo
*denotes out of HSA More shorebirds in the news this week. Last Friday a one-legged Willet showed up at the Grimsby Sewage Lagoons. As of today, this bird is still here. Also reported yesterday was a Baird's Sandpiper and a Pectoral Sandpiper. Today there are four Baird's Sandpipers. Although water levels are still high, it appears that there is some edging and this spot should be checked as it appears things are starting to pick up. Another mud flat found this week was at Rattray Marsh located at the end of Bexhill Drive in Mississauga. Yesterday there were Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets (4), Semipalmated Plover, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Solitary Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper (many), Least Sandpiper, Caspian Tern, Common Tern, Belted Kingfisher and Warbling Vireo. Congestion Ponds at North Service Road was a tad quiet this week with a number of Lesser Yellowlegs and one each of Semipalmated and Least Sandpiper. Townsend Sewage Lagoons is still the spot to be this week as they had a number of different species of shorebirds there including a Long-billed Dowitcher and can't say enough about the goopy habitat. The Valley Inn appears to be having a heron festival as one Great Egret, five Great Blue Herons and 10 Black-crowned Night Herons were seen in the week. A report of a young Peregrine Falcon seen outside an apartment building in Hamilton and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird at a feeder in Westdale tops off the odds & sods department this week. Have a great week, keep the sightings moving! Cheryl Edgecombe HNC Hotline 905-381-0329
