This morning [Aug 17] at Port Burwell PP we counted 400+ Common Terns
including lots of juveniles, 50+ Caspian Terns with juveniles and 300+
Bonaparte's Gulls with only a couple of juveniles along the beach along
with small numbers of Ring-billed [100+] and Herring Gulls [a few dozen].
We didn't find any Little Gulls, our main target, which usually show up
here in good numbers at this time of the year [20+ some years].
The only shorebird was a single Least Sandpiper.
We were lucky to witness an adult Bald Eagle steal a fish from an
Osprey. The Osprey counter-attacked but was shrugged off the eagle.
There were no gulls or terns on the public beach on the east side of
Otter Creek this morning.
Port Burwell is south of Tilsonburg via Hwy 19 / Plank Road on Lake Erie
at the eastern end of Elgin County. You can easily access the various
parts of the 3 km long park beach via 5 parking lots once inside the
park or via a public parking lot along the harbour entrance if you're
prepared to walk for up to an hour or so to get to the part of the beach
where the gulls normally loaf.
Dave Martin and Linda Wladarski
Avon
[email protected]
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