next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects
--Boundary_(ID_sx6zdmrjlwX8uTqcLFtk8g) Content-type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT PREFACE to note below: A couple of days before this, Andy Dean reported 100+ small shorebirds in Luckett's young vineyard at high tide, nearly all semipalmated plovers -- Andy has a very brief journal and nice photos on this event, and I can send them to anyone who requests such privately to myself. And perhaps 10 days previous to that, Wendy Elliott has told me that she and others had discovered shorebirds in the vineyard surrounding the famous red phone booth. Then I looked there on Sept. 1/11 and guesstimated 300-350 peeps there, nearly all semipalmated plovers as on Andy's day. Jim -------------------------- Sept. 2, 2011 - Daytime high tide 3:59 p.m. with a very big amplitude of 15.0 metres. At 5 p.m., with the big tide still full, I drove south from Grand Pre to Luckett's Vineyards (& Winery) on Wallbrook Mountain, south of the Gaspereau River, which is tidal where the bridge is. My reason for going was two reports over the past two weeks of up to 100 or more small shorebirds spending the high-tide period in the very young vineyard just north of the big Luckett's Winery building. I found the shorebirds right away, and they were in the highest, driest, and least green part of the vineyard surrounding the famous red phone booth. I estimated from 350 to 400 total peeps, of which all but about 5 were semipalmated plovers. There were only a few small sandpipers: at least 1 white-rumped sandpiper and 2 semipalmated sandpipers. This was the same proportions of plovers to sandpipers as Andy Dean saw yesterday, but obviously more of them today. Perhaps tomorrow I will take my folding chair and watch them for a while to see how active they are when they are not disturbed by me or others. It looked to me like quite a few of the semi' plovers were actively foraging, for insects? or for who knows what? Another thing I noticed as I walked through the young vineyard around the shorebirds, and approaching the phone booth to make two calls (one to California, free!), was that whitish small blobs of bird poop were everywhere, especially noticeable in the bare narrow lanes between the long green grassy rows of grape vines now up to about 30 cm. tall. Thus apparently the birds have been using most of the vineyard, and an employee inside the winery told me she has been aware of the birds there over the past month or so. SEPT. 2, 2011 - Daytime high tide at 4:49 p.m. with a big amplitude of 14.3 metres. Daily tidal amplitudes will now decrease rapidly, to 9.2 m. on Sept. 7, then grow again to 12.7 m. on Sept. 14, then down to 8.3 m. on Sept. 21, and finally grow a lot to 15.8 m. on Sept. 29. Can anyone spot the fortnightly pattern here, along with Spring vs. Neap Tides alternating at weekly intervals? Then factor in the phases of our Moon, along with the placements of Perigee and Apogee each month. Perigee is when our Moon is closest to the Earth (vs. Apogee). And of course there are many other factors that go into both the predicted tide times and heights and also just when and how big those tides turn out to be. A close Perigee occurs on Sept. 27, and Apogee is on Sept. 15. The predicted times and heights plus the timing of Perigee and Apogee are all in the Blomidon Naturalists Society Calendar, thanks to Sherman Williams, and there are also instructions about how to figure out tidal bore times for three places in the Windsor area of Hants County, and how to figure out tide times for the Bay of Fundy from those posted for the Minas Basin near Wolfville. I went back to Pete Luckett's Vineyards & Winery on Wallbrook Mountain at 1.5 hours after high tide, to check on the shorebirds there. This time I took a folding chair, and sat and quietly watched them for a half-hour, from 6:15 to 6:45 p.m. I disturbed them a bit by my arrival, and a winery employee did the same by moving a lawn sprinkler. But then the birds quieted down and were generally inactive with not much foraging. Today I estimated more birds, at about 450 total shorebirds: 440 were semipalmated plovers, and I saw 10 sandpipers, of which most or all were semipalmated sandpipers. Periodically there were loud explosions like shotgun blasts that were mechanically produced, a few at a time, with long gaps between groups of blasts. And the location of the blasts changed with each group. Twice the blasts were quite close to me and the birds, but there was no reaction noted. I'm sure these noises were to protect fruits from wildlife. At 6:30 p.m. about 60 shorebirds abruptly flew off and headed north toward the Minas Basin. Then every few minutes another group of 30 to 60 birds did the same thing, about 5 or 6 times, until at 6:45 a large dog showed up, noisily and amiably approached me, and flushed the final 200 birds, which followed the others northward. This left only a couple of the plovers, and I departed. Cheers from Jim in Wolfville --Boundary_(ID_sx6zdmrjlwX8uTqcLFtk8g) Content-type: text/html; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable <html><body style=3D"word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; = -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>PREFACE to note below: A = couple of days before this, Andy Dean reported 100+ small shorebirds in = Luckett's young vineyard at high tide, nearly all semipalmated plovers = -- Andy has a very brief journal and nice photos on this event, and I = can send them to anyone who requests such privately to = myself.</div><div><br></div><div>And perhaps 10 days previous to that, = Wendy Elliott has told me that she and others had discovered shorebirds = in the vineyard surrounding the famous red phone = booth.</div><div><br></div><div>Then I looked there on Sept. 1/11 and = guesstimated 300-350 peeps there, nearly all semipalmated plovers as on = Andy's day. = Jim</div><div>--------------------------</div><div><br></div>Sept. = 2, 2011 - <span class=3D"Apple-style-span" style=3D"font-size: = 12px; ">Daytime</span><span class=3D"Apple-style-span" style=3D"font-size:= 12px; "><b> high tide 3:59 p.m.</b></span><span = class=3D"Apple-style-span" style=3D"font-size: 12px; "> with a = </span><span class=3D"Apple-style-span" style=3D"font-size: 12px; = "><b>very big amplitude</b></span><span class=3D"Apple-style-span" = style=3D"font-size: 12px; "> of 15.0 metres. At 5 p.m., with the = big tide still full, I drove south from Grand Pre to </span><span = class=3D"Apple-style-span" style=3D"font-size: 12px; "><b>Luckett's = Vineyards (& Winery)</b></span><span class=3D"Apple-style-span" = style=3D"font-size: 12px; "> on Wallbrook Mountain, south of the = Gaspe