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Index of Subjects I would be interested in hearing if those of you who have been keeping a close watch on the shorebird numbers, are seeing a drop in numbers beginning tomorrow, Monday (Aug 24). Late Sunday evening (Aug 23) and until about 2 am (Aug 24) the sky over Horton Bluff was filled with waves of the piping-twittery sounds of high-flying shorebirds, all heading southeast. Perhaps an average of between 3 and 4 waves of birds per minute. This came to my attention between 11 and 11:15 p.m. while sitting at my computer; my ear caught the sounds wafting in the open study window. I immediately went out on my upper deck which faces northwest in the general direction of Minas Basin and Avonport Beach. It wasn't long before another wave of birds were approaching from the same general direction of sky having Draco and the Dippers (Big and Small) as starry background. In a few seconds they passed over the house and faded into the distance southeastward. They no sooner passed out of earshot when another group was piping toward me. After a few minutes of listening I decided to get my digital camera and make myself comfortable. The digital camera, which takes digital video clips, was used in trying to capture the sound of the birds and some of my comments on what I was witnessing and a time stamp to go with it. I managed to capture two or three reasonable samples. What is amazing is that this went on unabated, wave after wave of twittering little piping sounds until well past 1 a.m. About 1:20 a.m. the numbers really slowed down. A few more flocks went over but they were spaced much further apart in time and a few of the groups only had a couple of birds piping, stragglers. Just before 2 a.m there were 3 or 4 more waves of reasonable size go over. I decided to call it quits for the night. As I type this I have only heard two more small groups pass over. The stars were shining brightly through most of the observation. A few clouds occasionally moved across and hazed out some of the stars. Very little of no breeze. The Minas Basin tide at 11 p.m. was just nicely beginning to rise, having been low at 10:12 p.m. Just about every year I witness this phenomena usually sometime between the 10th and 25th of August and just about every time it is associated with a starry night, a high pressure weather cell building in over the area just after a low pressure weather system is moving out. That was very dramatically the situation today (Aug 23rd). Sherman On 21/08/2009, at 9:18 PM, Judy Tufts wrote: > 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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