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Fri. Aug 21 / 09 High Tide 2.12 p.m.
It seems several of us were checking out the Grand Pre shorebirds today!
The tide was very high (15.1m) and had almost completely covered the rocks
along the outer rocky extensions to the western Grand Pre dyke opposite the
Wolfville Sewage Ponds, when I arrived at 2.30 p.m. The 300+ birds I found
there were squeezed onto a few small uncovered boulders with barely room to
move, with rising tide level threatening to cover those rocks. I was told
by a lady walking her dog along the dyke from Wolfville harbour, that she
had been observing similar sights all along the outer dyke wall, from the
beginning of her walk until she reached me. Among this group of roosting
peeps I noted at least 12 DUNLIN and 20 Semip. Plovers.
36 Black-bellied Plovers flew by looking for a suitable landing spot.
At The GUZZLE one hour after high tide:
Huge flocks of tightly packed shorebirds (majority Semip. Sandpipers) were
huddled on the upper parts of the beach to the west of the 'point'. I bumped
into Pat Macleod walking her little dog along the dyke (well away from the
birds and beach), and together we watched the roosting flocks, waiting for
movement once the tide dropped. It was only once they began to disperse
into flocks and move out to feed,that we were really able to see the depth
of numbers, and 60,000+ would be our guesstimate.
A couple of flocks, when they broke up to feed in front of our vantage
point, contained hundreds of Semip. Plovers, a few White-rumps, some Least
Sandpipers and a couple of Sanderlings. Just as I left at 4.45 p.m. an
immature Peregrine singled out a 'peep' but in spite of numerous attempts
failed to connect and left. The sudden appearance of this falcon quickly
cleared the beach near us of all 'peeps' and they headed 'en masse' towards
the cove to the west along Evangeline Beach.
Cheers,
Judy Tufts
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Judy Tufts
Wolfville
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