Most of these photos are from Saturday morning.
Lots of American Pipits wandering around with the few shorebirds:
This picture pretty much sums up the diversity of peeps we had.
White-rumped (adult), Least (juvenile), and Semipalmated (juv.) Sandpipers from left to right.
This dead salmon was interesting - don't worry, I didn't bring it home to taxidermy... or fry for that matter!
My first juvenile Black-bellied Plovers of the year:
This Common Checkered-Skipper may have been the first record for the park (found by Ian Shanahan) - plenty more were seen the next day!
This White-rumped Sandpiper was the only adult shorebird we saw this weekend. If you compare it to the other shorebird pics above and below, you'll notice that the feathers on the back (i.e. scapulars) aren't very distinct and 'crisp'. Actually, the scapular and mantle feathers on most (probably all) juvenile peeps are bordered with white.
The fact that this bird was an adult pretty much rules out all the other similar shorebirds (except Dunlin) because most of the adults are no longer in Canada!
This page has a good summary of when each species and age is expected.
juv. Semipalmated Sandpiper:
juv. Semipalmated Plover
1 flock of Sanderlings was hanging out on the beach:
Great Black-backed Gull:
A Palm Warbler waited patiently for me to take a photo:
I was pretty happy with how the photos of this Merlin turned out:
-digimaster ;)
