1,454 Least Sandpipers!

[Gord]

That's not a typo. This evening in the pond near Annis Road there were a great many peeps. Looking over the flock, of what I estimated at the time to be a good 500 strong birds, I saw pretty much all Least Sandpipers but there were 5 Western Sandpipers, 1 Baird's Sandpiper and a Dunlin mixed in. They then took flight and I got some pictures in the failing light.





Back home I counted the flock...hmmm my estimation was a little off. Not counting the Dunlin who stuck out in the picture, I counted 1,461 peeps. Subtracting the Western and Baird's I ended up with 1,454 Least Sandpipers. I've never seen anything quite like it out here or even at Boundary Bay either for that matter. This poor weather sure stalled a big migrating flock of them!!



My count sheet in case anyone wants to do an audit ;D
The Dunlin can be seen near the front of the flock (no dot)



At Harrison I saw a Western Sandpiper and a couple American Pipits near the boat launch.

From Thacker Marsh in Hope I saw/heard Hammond's Flycatcher, a Nashville Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Townsend's Warbler, Black-throated Grey Warbler and quite a few Yellow-rumped Warbler. I bumped into Mike Force on the trail and we walked together for a few minutes. Mike thought he heard a Calliope Hummingbird go past. Later he texted me to say he saw three Nashville Warblers after I left.

[10aciousfaith]

Hi Gord:

Look at the list of warblers and the one flycatcher, Hammond's Flycatcher. I was just at at Thacker's Marsh on April 25th and managed to identify only the Yellow-rump. I guess the others could have moved in over the past 4 days.

Great number of peeps at the Annis Rd pond. You'll have to do a demonstration of how you count the birds with red dots on here some time.

[Dave]

There still were at least 400 Least Sandpipers on the Annis/Hwy1 pond tonight. I can't confirm whether there were exactly 1454 .

[butterfly]

Awesome Gord!