Wednesday 18 July 2012

Shorebirds in Waterloo

As far as I know, there are only 2 locations in the county where shorebirds have been regularly occurring this season.
1 is in Cambridge and takes me over an hour to get there. The second, however, is Columbia Lake and happens to be on my way to school.

Needless to say, I have been a frequent visitor to Columbia Lake lately. There's always plenty of Killdeer and Spotted Sandpipers. 10+ Least Sandpipers are nice, 1 Semipalmated Sandpiper has been there for a few days (assuming it's the same one). The other species include Lesser Yellowlegs, a Solitary Sandpiper and today (finally a new one) a Pectoral Sandpiper - which I was pretty happy about.

It might not be James Bay, but it's exciting for me to have shorebirds so close to where I live :)

Here are some mediocre digiscoped shots:

Least Sandpiper:

And a Semipalmated Sandpiper (SESA) with a Least Sandpiper (LESA) to the left.
Notice that the LESA has more red/brown on the top making it look darker versus the dull gray of the SESA. The breast streaking on the LESA is also more noticeable.