Wonderful Waterbirds

 It is that time of year when birds are on the move southwards. Fortunately there are some great places in Chatham-Kent which attract these migrants, enabling them to replenish their energy reserves before making the next leg of their journey.

There is no question that the high water levels in the Lake Erie region, and elsewhere, have caused problems for humans living near the water front. But for water birds, it has been great. For example the flooded fields of the Keith McLean Conservation Lands just outside of Rondeau Prov Park, is being well used by many species of water birds.

For birders, shorebirds are of particular interest right now, as the many thousands of shorebirds that nested in the arctic or sub-arctic regions are now making their way south. Many will fly right over and beyond, but there are always a few that touch down locally at least for a little while.

At the area I refer to as Lake McLean at the KMCL, there are sometimes as many as 150 or so individuals of a dozen or more species at any one time. So far in the last 2-3 weeks there have been about 20 species observed, some quite common and others much rarer. The latter ones always garner a bit of extra attention from birders.

The first few shown next are some of the regular ones, but still nice to see.

Greater Yellowlegs

This next one, Lesser Yellowlegs, is almost always more abundant than its larger relative.

The smallest regular shorebird is the Least Sandpiper, below. It is a first year bird.

Quite a bit larger is, in spite of its name, this Short-billed Dowitcher. There have been 1-5 of them at KMCL over the last few weeks, and a single member of its close relative the Long-billed Dowitcher has just been reported in the last few days.

A more slender appearing shorebird, often associating with the dowitchers, is a Stilt Sandpiper.

At least a couple of Stilt Sandpipers have been seen on a regular basis.

A shorebird that always gets the attention of birders is this next one, a Red Knot. This is a juvenile bird, so it doesn't show any reddish coloration that an adult in breeding plumage does. It looks a bit like a chunky dowitcher with a short bill (but not to be confused with a Short-billed Dowitcher :-)

It has been around for several days, and while it moves around quite a bit along the shores of Lake McLean, it can actually appear relatively tame. This next photo is a full frame shot, no cropping whatsoever. At one point I could barely get the full bird in my camera's frame. It is a seriously declining species in North America.

A somewhat more regular migrant, but not often seen on mud flats, is this Buff-breasted Sandpiper. It has a slightly warmer colour tone than many of the grayer shorebirds. It wasn't quite as tolerant as the Red Knot, and all of these images are greatly cropped. Fortunately the light was excellent at the time.

Along the lake shores, one is more likely to see this next shorebird, the Sanderling, as it scurries along the shoreline searching for tidbits of something at the water's edge.

Regular water birds in places like the KMCL include Great Egret.....

....and of course Great Blue Heron. This particular individual was exhibiting some territorial behaviour, as indicated by its upturned bill and fluffed feathers and strutting along in the direction of another one, just to the left of this photo. The one shown here was apparently trying to encourage the other one to leave, which after a few moments, was successful in doing.

The big news of the last day or so was the appearance of a young Purple Gallinule, found by Steve Charbonneau at the Blenheim Sewage Lagoons. It is quite a rarity in Ontario, although it does show up somewhere in southern Ontario from time to time. This is the first record for it in Chatham-Kent as far as I am aware. It is a skulking type, and since it is most likely to occur at the muddy but vegetated edges of wetlands, those areas are often difficult to access and view, so it may be more regularly occurring than records would indicate.

As a young bird, it exhibits the warm brown colours, not the purple that it will look like in its later breeding plumage. This next photo shows the breeding plumage, a bird I photographed on May 6, 1984 at Tremblay Creek Conservation Area in the north east corner of adjacent Essex County.

In addition to the warm brown, which the regularly occurring relative Common Gallinule doesn't show, is the pale bluish shield at the top of its beak.

At one point one could see the Purple Gallinule and a Sora in the same field of view.

With shore and water bird migration in full swing and which will continue for the next few weeks, one can only imagine what else might show up!