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Falls Lake shorebirds



HI all,

Despite of rather foggy morning was fairly interesting day (or rather
half of the day). I checked three location on Falls Lake: Little Lick
Creek peninsula, area near Cheek Rd bridge (mud flats and grass areas NW
from the bridge and Panther Creek RR. Near the bridge there were 17
Killdeers, 1 ad White-rumped Sand. and 22 Least Sand (4 adults) whereas
Panther Creek RR wasn't as much interesting as yesterday, the Am. Golden
PLover was missing, 12 Killdeers, 4 Semipalmated Pl., 11 Least Sand. (7
ad) and 2 ad White-rumped Sand, were only shorebirds spotted.
Nevertheless Little LIck Creek peninsula was much much better (because
of fog I was not able to check a few islands E from peninsula, so there
could be some more birds, the PIping Plover  and Wilson's Phalarope were
there few weeks ago):

Killdeer  41
Semipalmated Plover  7
Lesser Yellowlegs  1 juv.
Spotted Sandpiper  3
White-rumped Sand.  3 ad
Semipalmated Sand.  2 juv.
Least Sand. 227 (at least 20 ad)
Buff-breasted Sand.  1 juv. (one of the most handsome shorebirds for me)

Water is going down so there were many new freshly exposed mud areas and
will more if weather be like that. The Buff-breasted stay at the end of
the peninsula between two small bays (on left and right side of the
peninsula) with group of some 25 Least, Semipalmated and White-rumped
Sandpipers. Most birds stay on the middle part of the peninsula with
actually some only 20% feeding on the water edges.
It may suggest that there not yet plenty of food in newly exposed mud
(probably we need some flies and their eggs and larvae in the mud) or
the were plenty of food among vegetation (could be caused by fog and
moisture) or most of the birds were freshly arrivals and were just
resting. However I would say there was some nice food among vegetation
and on the sand, all species were feeding there, picking some nice
"burgers" fairly often. Anyway looks we still have good passage of
adults birds (Least and White-rumped), means the best is still in front
of us with hundreds of juveniles coming (I hope so...).
One more, this morning was perfect for shorebirds calls learning.
Moisture in the air made all voices fairly crisp and clear, so it was
very good learning experience for me.

Mike

--
************************************************
Michal Skakuj  Ph.D.
4600 University Drive apt. 1312
Durham, NC 27707
phone:        919 402 9961
mobile phone: 919 599 3040