Not so solitary sandpiper...

It was a little cloudy overnight, and I woke up with thoughts of grounded migrant shorebirds. Not how everyone greets the day, admittedly, but as we birder's know, the urge to follow our instincts can be just as strong as our quarry's desire to move south at the breeding season draws to a close.

So, I headed to my new favourite Victoria birding spot; Panama Flats.
The northern pool looked pretty lively as I approached, and through my bins I could see plenty of avian activity. There were lesser yellowlegs all over the place, and I counted at least 13. By comparison, 11 greater yellowlegs were also present.
As I scanned through the least sandpipers and western sandpipers, a larger bird caught my eye.

An adult solitary sandpiper. Nice. The bird gave excellent views as it fed close to me, among other species. A few minutes later I picked up another, this time a juvenile, and after about half an hour the two birds were feeding together.
I counted 46 leasts and 17 western sandpipers in total, but due to the fact that they were constantly moving around the area, these counts were probably conservative under estimates.
Also present were a single semi-palmated sandpiper, 5 killdeer, 5 spotted sandpiper and 13 short-billed dowitchers. The dowitchers called clearly identifying themselves as short-billed - I suspect that when I saw 13 'long-billed'  a couple of days ago, my interpretation of their brief calls was faulty, to say the least!
Good numbers of barn swallow were around too, and among them I noticed at least 2 cliff swallows and a northern rough-winged swallow. A single purple martin also flew through, but carried on in a southerly direction.

Evening Wader Watch

After finishing work today I managed a visit to Panama Flats, keen to see if there were any waders present. 
Water levels were generally pretty low, bar the two main pools. There were good numbers of barn swallows feeding all over the place, plus a handful of violet-green and a couple of northern rough-winged swallows.
A group of 6 dowitchers were on the bank of the larger pool. When they flew, they called and they all sounded like long-billed.
Around the pools edges were 3 spotted sandpipers.
In the far south east corner, in a vegetated muddy area. there were approximately 230 peeps feeding. Scoping through them, the ratio of birds seemed to be about 60/40 western to least sandpipers.
After around 45 minutes of thorough scanning, I finally picked up a single semi-palmated sandpiper among them. Another spotted sandpiper was also here as were up to a dozen killdeer, including 2 very young, unfledged birds.
Walking back, I noticed a pair of greater yellowlegs (pictured) that had appeared from somewhere or other.
At one point a peregrine came through, spooking everything, before sitting up in a bare tree to the consternation of a local robin.

Poor Peep Show

Saturday

A check of the marsh and channels in the Holden Creek area at low tide today revealed little of note.
Highlights included 12 western and 1 semi-palmated sandpiper among 26 least sandpipers. A single killdeer was over the marsh.
A Lincoln's sparrow was in brambles along the raised flood bank.

Sunday

Once again I headed down to the estuary to see if any 'new' shorebirds had dropped in at Holden Creek. The same problem persists at his site, as it has during the whole shorebird migration period, where few tides are significant enough, in height, to fill the dried up pools on the marsh. Obviously, the ongoing lack of rainfall only adds to the issue.  
Consequently, there seems to be little to attract passing waders, other than the tidal creeks. Today's paltry mud dwellers consisted of just 37 least sandpipers and 6 western sandpipers. 
Still quite a few juvenile cowbirds hanging around the cattle.

* 2 black swift were over the house, in Cedar, at 7.50pm

Weekend round-up

Managed to cover the marsh and Holden Creek pretty thoroughly on Friday after work, in advance of the incoming tide.
Around 20 least sandpiper were on and around the creek, plus a single semi-palmated sandpiper. The marsh pools were birdless - and increasingly drying out. Just the horrible bug-infested swampy corner had any waders present - again just least sands, and only 8 of them.
The Canada geese numbers are still growing daily, but no other wildfowl has shown up yet. Osprey, red-tailed hawk, bald eagle and merlin all put in appearances, and the usual passerines and hirundines were present.
Later, (approx 7.20pm) a group of 8 common nighthawk flew over the house.

Saturday was pretty much taken up travelling over to Vancouver airport to meet Jenny, who was arriving back from a week in Merry Old England. The ferry journeys were utterly crap bird-wise with very little to see both ways. A small flock of Bonaparte's gulls and a single rhinoceros auklet were the only things of note.

Sunday, Jen and I took a stroll down the Cable Bay Trail, and while we had a lovely walk, the place was pretty crumby as far as the birding was concerned.

   

Monday wader watch

There were fewer small waders in the Holden Creek area when I visited this evening, and I counted no more than 14 least sandpiper.
There were still 3 western and 2 semi-palmated sandpipers present in the creek, and a pair of long-billed dowitchers were feeding in tandem with 2 greater yellowlegs out on the marsh flashes.

Independence Day delights

Jen and I had a stroll around Hemer Park today, as we regularly do.
On the way, we came across a clan of merlin, 5 birds in total - not too sure whether it was 4 young and one adult, or a pair with 3 nippers. One thing for sure though, they were jolly noisy little blighters.
At the park, it was pretty quiet, as expected. Particularly so, when a peregrine passed through and sent the smaller falcons into something of a frenzy.
There were loads of smart looking dragonflies around, I'll be trying to ID them later...
The forest was alive with the sound of Pacific-slope flycatchers, plus the occasional western tanager and what-have-you.
The two broods of wood duck now number 4 and 7, and they're growing well. An osprey was roosting up by the pool.

Later, headed down to Holden Creek for a check on the waders. Least sandpiper numbers were down a bit with 49 birds present. Only 3 western sandpipers were still there, but the semi-palmated sandpiper population had doubled to a mighty 4 birds!
Once again, I couldn't resist taking a snap. It's brilliant fun, having this opportunity to really scrutinize these shorebirds, in various stages of moult and wear. Having made such a mess of the initial aging of these sandpipers I'm now looking at every feather. Great stuff! After years of dunlin, red knot, curlews, green sandpipers etc it's really fabulous to be looking at a whole 'new' set of waders, through fresh eyes.  I can't wait to really mis-identify something major, very soon!
The only other thing of note, was pair of house wrens scolding me near the interpretation board.
 

Holden Creek Peep Show

To celebrate Canada Day, I popped down to Holden Creek yesterday where the semi-palmated sandpiper was still hanging around with the least and western sandpipers.
Though, the numbers were significantly lower than yesterday, particularly regarding westerns which had gone down to about 8 birds, while leasts had increased to 19. 3 killdeer, and adult & 2 juvs, were on the creek. I counted more mosquito bites than birds...
A mink put in an appearance as it hunted along the creek.
Later I finally bagged a year-tick in the form of a common nighthawk which came low over us, while it was hawking the fields as we walked home from the Crow & Gate pub at 9.30ish. It was joined by a second bird, and they flopped overhead, showing well. Nice.

This evening (having doused myself in repellent) I went down to the creek after work. Once again, the number of waders had changed and there were around 70 least sandpipers feeding along the creek edge. 10 westerns were still present and a second semi-palmated sandpiper had arrived. Both birds are pictured above (the image on the left also shows a least sandpiper).
They are actually adults, as can be clearly seen now I bother to look properly... thanks to those who pointed this out!
And I only got bitten once, and there were bloody loads of mozzies about! Whoo-hoo!


And I couldn't resist getting some digi-scopey-film of one of the resident red-tailed hawks as it whined from one of the dead trees by the creek.
   

Autumn birding starts early

Visited Holden Creek again this evening and found that the place was more like late summer than the end of June.
A group of mixed waders were feeding along the creek, the majority being western sandpiper (34) plus least sandpiper (11) and a single bird which I believe was a semi-palmated sandpiper.
Now, I realise that they're quiet scarce on this part of Vancouver Island, so I'm happy to be corrected. I'm not terribly familiar with the species having rarely seen them in the past, and the thing that really bothers me about this individual is that it appears to be a juvenile, and it just seems too early for a young bird of that species to be down here at the end of June. As I say, please correct me if I'm mistaken. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see any webbing between the bird's toes, and taking shots with a hand-held camera up to my 'scope doesn't allow for quality images that might reveal that feature. All the exposed feet shots are blurred. The only thing I can't figure out is; if it isn't a semi-p - what is it? Am I missing something really obvious?  
Anyway, here are some dodgy pics and a bit of footage.