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Post by Gord on Sept 19, 2019 21:28:52 GMT -8
This morning I drove by the 'golden plover' field to see if anything was in there. As I was approaching the Prest Road exit I saw a large shorebird with long pointed wings flying towards me heading west. As best I safely could I watched it as it passed and noted long beak, legs past the tail and black and white underwings. I wasn't sure what it was at the time and lamented the fact if it had just left the plover field I missed it by a few minutes! At the field, it was pretty quiet so I hurried over to check the flooded field best viewed from the Prest Road onramp. Balancing scope on the car I quickly spotted among about 40 dowitchers a slightly larger and taller but similarly coloured bird. The beak was long, bit upturned with pale red/orangish on the 1/3 or so of the base. The bird I saw must have circled around and landed as what I saw in flight matches the bird on the ground. Far from expected given this species migrates through the Prairies and even in the best locations is not seen very often in coastal BC. I had to get to work and rushed off without at least trying a digiscoped photo. That was dumb. I texted Jon who I knew lived close but despite getting there within 15 minutes it was not to be seen. This is only the second time I've ever seen one. I think I'll get up a bit earlier and stop by again tomorrow.
This little spot is turning into a classic Patagonia picnic table effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonia_picnic_table_effect). But given the extreme lack of decent shorebird habitat anything passing over is probably drawn to the site. Reading old documents of birds recorded at Sumas Lake in the late 1800's early 1900's before it was drained suggests it was an important stop over for shorebirds.
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