[ValleyNature] Grand Pre shorebirds & peregrine Aug. 8-9 high tides

[James W. Wolford]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "James W. Wolford" <jimwolford at eastlink.ca>
> Date: August 9, 2009 4:39:43 PM ADT
> To: naturens at chebucto.ns.ca, Jim Wolford <jimwolford at eastlink.ca>,  
> Dick Dekker <ddekker1 at telus.net>
> Cc: Peter Hicklin <Peter.Hicklin at EC.GC.CA>, Julie Paquet  
> <Julie.Paquet at ec.gc.ca>
> Subject: Grand Pre shorebirds & peregrine Aug. 8-9 high tides
>
> AUGUST 8, 2009 - high tide time 3:08 p.m. (3 days after Full Moon)  
> -- I arrived at Evangeline Beach at about 4:45 p.m., about 1.5 hrs.  
> after high tide -- at the canteen shorebird viewing platform, I saw  
> about 500 PEEPS in small flocks of 100 or less, flying about and  
> landing and foraging as the tide began to ebb.
>
> Then I walked Evangeline Beach eastward from the Bearnes' cottage  
> (Sandpiper Lane and Pheasant Road) from about 5:00 to 5:45 p.m.,  
> i.e. to about 2.5 hrs. after high tide, to where the trees end and  
> salt-marsh begins.  When I walked back at 5:45 p.m., about 6000  
> PEEPS had accumulated in a very long narrow line along the water  
> line, feeding in the newly exposed mudflat.  And more flocks of  
> peeps were arriving, so that I didn't stay to see how many would  
> accumulate.  Semipalmated plovers were fairly abundant, perhaps  
> totalling 300 or more.  Some of the peeps were flying low over the  
> water in both eastward and westward directions, but I think most of  
> the feeding peeps had arrived from the east (but I don't really  
> know that).
>
> AUGUST 9, 2009 - I'm writing this at high, high tide at 3:44 p.m./ 
> 15:44, right after Pat & I came back from an interesting time with  
> PEEP SHOREBIRDS at THE GUZZLE, which is the far northeastern point  
> of the Grand Pre dykelands.  The Guzzle itself is the narrow strip  
> of open water (mud at low tide) that separates Long Island (no  
> longer an island) from Boot Island just offshore to the east (where  
> our d-cr cormorants, great blue herons, great black-backed and  
> herring gulls, and a bald eagle nest).  (Not to be confused with  
> The Guzzle at Cape Sable Island.)
>
> We got there at about 2.5 hours before high tide and first checked  
> the area where most of the striped bass fishers do their thing.  As  
> usual, there were about 25 very camouflaged/cryptic LEAST  
> SANDPIPERS there among the rocks and sand on the highest sand  
> behind the fishers.  Then a tour group of birders from the U.S.  
> showed up.
>
> We had our best show of shorebirds from the northernmost end of the  
> main dyke that heads south to Hortonville along the mouth of the  
> Gaspereau River where it joins the Minas Basin.  At first we saw  
> linear flocks of flying PEEPS, mostly heading eastward, but then  
> wheeling around, some landing briefly near an isolated fisher  
> couple just west of us, then taking off again in their migratory  
> restlessness (when I took Ornithology back in the 1960s, we had to  
> learn a German word for this restlessness called  
> "Zughenrhue" (spelling?)(Germans, e.g. Sauer, did much of the early  
> experimental work on bird migration).
>
> By one hour before high tide, the SHOW OF FLYING PEEPS got very  
> good, with about 1500-2000 of them in one aerodynamic flock that  
> twisted and turned, showed bellies and then backs, and split up and  
> then rejoined, and briefly landed several times to form GRAY  
> CARPETS of densely packed sandpipers (an occasional semipalmated  
> plover was visible among them by size (large, long-winged) or by  
> their black collar on land.
>
> Their roosting was rudely interrupted by a PEREGRINE FALCON that  
> suddenly arrived "out of nowhere", scattered the peeps in all  
> directions, and then after a single pass past them just flew off  
> toward the west and out of sight south of the farm with the tall  
> silos.
>
> Pat & I departed at about a half-hour before high tide.  I  
> predicted for the birders that the east end of Evangeline Beach  
> would be a great spot to be at about 2 hours after high tide, when  
> the tide would be noticeably ebbing and shorebird feeding there  
> would be in high gear for about an hour.
>
> Cheers from Jim in Wolfville
>

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