DAYS END AT HURKETT COVE

May 26, 2012

We ended our birding day watching for Black Scoters to fly by on their migration to the far north. We have never seen them land. They have a very narrow window of sighting days at the end of May, and it has always been in the late evening. We didn't see any this evening.

The afternoon began with an over-flight of a dozen White Pelicans.

We trekked out to the sand bar and saw a Caspian Tern, Dunlins and a Least Sandpiper.

Not quite five inches, but not afraid of large bodies staring at it.
Least Sandpiper

The Killdeer is an 8 inch bird. A lot easier to see in the camera's lens.

 Across the river one Black Bellied Plover had the sand all to itself.

Then a flock of 30 Whimbrels flew by and landed. And took off. And landed. Etc. Etc. Etc. They finally stayed put on a small sandbar off-shore and we could readily identify them through the spotting scope. They are 14 inches, with long legs and a long, down curved bill.This flock brought back memories of my first Whimbrel, on May 27, 2007, at Sawmill Point on the Nipigon River, as a huge flock (est. about 100), performed the same up and down routine (flying at tree level just over our heads), before flying off past Honeymoon Cove Point, going east along Nipigon Bay.

Home again at 10:30 P.M. I could add 15 species to my 2012 bird list from the 48 species we saw. The two bus loads of birders combined list for the day reached about 107 species.

1. Robin
2. Crow
3. Raven
4. Merlin
5. Semipalmated Plover
6. C. Merganser
7. Mallard
8. Barn Swallow
9. Great Blue Heron
10. Bald Eagle
11. Red Wing Blackbird
12. Canada Geese
13. Tundra Swan
14. Ringbill Gull
15. Goldeneye
16. Bufflehead
17. Song Sparrow
18. Tree Swallow
19. Eastern Phoebe
20. Herring Gull
21. Grackle
22. Blue Jay
23. Starling
24. Ruby Throat Hummingbird
25. Goldfinch
26. E. Bluebird
27. Sandhill Crane
28. Belted Kingfisher
29. E. Kingbird
30. Common Flicker
31. Red - eyed Vireo
32. Willow Flycatcher
33. Ruby Crown Kinglet
34. White throated Sparrow
35. Downy Woodpecker
36. Orange Crown Warbler
37. American Bittern
38. Kestrel
39. Morning Dove
40. Killdeer
41. Turkey Vulture
42. White Pelican
43. Caspian Tern
44. Least Sandpiper
45. Whimbrels
46. Black-bellied Plover
47. Dunlin
48. Pine Sisken