On July 31 fifteen of us checked out shorebird habitat along the north shore of Lake Erie from Fort Erie to Rock Point Provincial Park with stops at Rose Hill, Stonemill and Prospect Point S. Roads, Morgan's Point, Rock Point and the sod farms along Canal Bank Rd. Our search was aided by lower lake levels this year exposing more feeding area for shorebirds. Our most productive stop was at Rock Point where there were good shorebird numbers including 12 species: Baird's (2, spotted by Jim Pawlicki), Least, Semipalmated, Pectoral, and Spotted Sandpipers; Rudy Turnstones (2), Sanderlings, Short-billed Dowitchers (3), Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeers, Semipalmated Plovers and one Black-bellied Plover. Five more Black-bellies were seen at one of the few remaining sod farms along Canal Bank Rd. (most of the former sod fields have been converted to growing soy beans and the few remaining sod fields along the south side of Poth Rd. are brown). A breeding plumaged Bonaparte's Gull was noted at Stonemill Rd., 2 Caspian Terns (one with a fish) and a Cedar Waxwing at Morgan's Point, a Belted Kingfisher near Port Maitland and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak along the way.
Respectfully submitted, Mike Hamilton
