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--Apple-Mail-45-994495874 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed AUG. 6, 2012 - Daytime high tide was 4:47 p.m. today at Wolfville, and I arrived at the Canteen/Motel/shorebird viewing area at 6:15, i.e., 1.5 hrs. after high tide. My timing was serendipitously perfect, since I was greeted by an awesome aerobatic show from about 10,000 peeps flying and landing right below us in post-roosting exercises as the tide began to ebb. And the bright Sunlight enhanced the spectacle by exaggerating the dark-white-dark-white rippling through the flocks as they coordinated their twisting and turning and splitting and rejoining in the air. Also the sounds of all those wings in landing and taking off so close below us were also awesome. But I didn't notice any hunting falcons today (neither merlins nor peregrines). As the tide was just beginning to ebb and the upper beach was very narrow, unfortunately already there were "recreating" people walking the upper beach or trying for shorebird photos. In such situations, shorebirds will tolerate slow movements by humans, but people walking the upper beach unnecessarily flush the resting or feeding shorebirds. And two of these people walked obliviously right through large groups of the sandpipers on the flats. Thus some education is necessary and some presence on the beaches. The vulnerability period for the birds is quite short, since soon the ebbing is far enough to widen the beach and create space for both humans and birds. Then I used the new public stairs adjacent to the viewing platform, and from 6:35 to 7:55 p.m. I walked the upper beach toward the east and watched for flying, landing, and feeding flocks of shorebirds. First, though, quickly I discovered many clumps of nice, clean, unsedimented "sea-mops" of gelatinous "fingers" of eggs of longfin squids, alias Peale's squid (Loligo pealeii)(now named Longfin Inshore Squid (Doryteuthis pealeii)(according to a Wikipedia search of "Loligo"). I counted 25 bunches of eggs just east from Roy Bishop's stairs and then 11 more batches well beyond there and nearly to Jean Merks' home (near the east end of the beach). On most of my beach walks during a falling tide, I find the shorebirds/peeps easy to count up since nearly all flying flocks head westward (having apparently arrived from up the Gaspereau River (and Avon and St. Croix Rivers) where there must be roosting sites (another such site is at Blue Beach). But today the directionality of the flying flocks was all mixed up, so that guessing total numbers seen is difficult to impossible. Westward-heading flocks of peeps were 10,000+150+40+100+200+300+300 +1200+500+2000+6000 to east end of beach = total of 23,000, including 3000 that were still just west of the Canteen feeding on the mudflats there at the end of my walk at 8 p.m. Many of these were feeding along the ebbing water line from the east end of Evangeline Beach westward continuously for about 2/3 of the length of the beach, to where the sandstone outcrops were at the surface of the intertidal flats. Eastward-heading flocks were 200+600+20+400+100 = total of 1320 peeps. As I said earlier, no falcons (and no eagles today) were noted this evening in this area. ------------------- > From: "James W. Wolford" <jimwolford@eastlink.ca> > Date: August 6, 2012 4:26:39 PM ADT > Subject: shorebirds, Evangeline Beach, just after high tide, Aug. 5/12 > > AUG. 5, 2012 - Daytime high tide was at 4 p.m. Pat & I got to the > Evangeline Beach Canteen & Motel parking lot at high tide. We got > ice cream cones, and Wayne Neily did the same. He saw one flock of > peeps fly by heading west and another big flock out over the water > wheeling around. Pat & I then drove to East Point at The Guzzle > and did a short dyke walk, and then at 5 p.m. I walked down to > where the striped-bass fishers were. There were about 15 least > sandpipers in the grasses above the high tide line. Then at 5:05 > p.m., for about 2-3 minutes there was a parade of flock after flock > of peeps, each flock numbering 20 to 50, 100 to 200, and up to > about 700 -- many flocks went by, nearly all flying from the east > and south (i.e. up the Gaspereau River somewhere) and passing by > the fishers and heading westward without stopping. I did not keep > a count, but I would guess a total of 6-7000 peeps went by in 2-3 > minutes. Then five minutes later, another few flocks likewise > followed the same pattern. I saw only one flock flying the other > way (inland), and that was only about 100 birds. > > I interviewed one of the fishers, and he said he couldn't recall > when the last "keeper" striped bass was caught, but that several > "keepers" were caught by researchers in the Gaspereau River in the > Spring (spawning run?). This fisher said that collectively only 2 > small stripers were caught at The Guzzle today. But he also said > that tagging research on the stripers in ongoing still, and that he > personally had caught 8 tagged fish earlier this year -- the taggin > info' is then reported to the researchers (Jeremy Broome et al. at > Acadia Univ. Biol.) and eventually he will get info' back on where > and when the tagging was done. > > Along the dykes were lots of butterflies, mostly cabbage whites, a > few sulphurs (prob. clouded), 2 black swallowtails, and 1-2 red > admirals. > > Cheers from Jim in Wolfville. > --Apple-Mail-45-994495874 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII <html><body style=3D"word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; = -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "> <div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; = margin-left: 0px; "><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" style=3D"font: = 12.0px Helvetica"><b>AUG. 6, 2012</b> - Daytime high tide was 4:47 p.m. = today at Wolfville, and I arrived at the Canteen/Motel/shorebird viewing = area at 6:15, i.e., <b>1.5 hrs. after high tide</b>. My timing was = serendipitously perfect, since I was greeted by an <b>awesome aerobatic = show from about 10,000 peeps flying and landing</b> right below us in = post-roosting exercises as the tide began to ebb. And the bright = Sunlight enhanced the spectacle by exaggerating the = dark-white-dark-white rippling through the flocks as they coordinated = their twisting and turning and splitting and rejoining in the air. = Also the sounds of all those wings in landing and taking off so close = below us were also awesome. But I didn't notice any hunting = falcons today (neither merlins nor peregrines).</font></div><div = style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; = margin-left: 0px; "><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" style=3D"font: = 12.0px Helvetica"><br></font></div><div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; = margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font = face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica">As the = tide was just beginning to ebb and the upper beach was very narrow, = unfortunately already there were <b>"recreating" people walking the = upper beach</b> or trying for shorebird photos. In such = situations, shorebirds will tolerate slow movements by humans, but = people walking the upper beach unnecessarily flush the resting or = feeding shorebirds. And two of these people walked obliviously = right through large groups of the sandpipers on the flats. Thus = some education is necessary and some presence on the beaches. The = vulnerability period for the birds is quite short, since soon the ebbing = is far enough to widen the beach and create space for both humans and = birds. </font></div><div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; = margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal = normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div = style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; = margin-left: 0px; "><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" style=3D"font: = 12.0px Helvetica">Then I used the new public stairs adjacent to the = viewing platform, and from 6:35 to 7:55 p.m.<b> I walked the upper = beach</b> toward the east and watched for flying, landing, and feeding = flocks of <b>shorebirds</b>. First, though, quickly I discovered = many clumps of nice, clean, unsedimented<b> "sea-mops"</b> of gelatinous = "fingers" of <b>eggs of longfin squids, alias Peale's squid = (</b><i>Loligo pealeii</i>)(now named Longfin Inshore Squid = (<i>Doryteuthis pealeii</i>)(according to a Wikipedia search of = "Loligo"). I counted 25 bunches of eggs just east from Roy = Bishop's stairs and then 11 more batches well beyond there and nearly to = Jean Merks' home (near the east end of the beach).</font></div><div = style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; = margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; = min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; = margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font = face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica">On most = of my beach walks during a falling tide, I find the shorebirds/peeps = easy to count up since nearly all flying flocks head westward (having = apparently arrived from up the Gaspereau River (and Avon and St. Croix = Rivers) where there must be roosting sites (another such site is at Blue = Beach). But today the directionality of the flying flocks was all = mixed up, so that guessing total numbers seen is difficult to = impossible.</font></div><div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: = 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal = 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div = style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; = margin-left: 0px; "><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" style=3D"font: = 12.0px Helvetica"><b>Westward-heading flocks of peeps were</b> = 10,000+150+40+100+200+300+300+1200+500+2000+6000 to east end of beach = =3D<b> total of 23,000</b>, including 3000 that were still just west of = the Canteen feeding on the mudflats there at the end of my walk at 8 = p.m. Many of these were feeding along the ebbing water line from = the east end of Evangeline Beach westward continuously for about 2/3 of = the length of the beach, to where the sandstone outcrops were at the = surface of the intertidal flats. </font></div><div = style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; = margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; = min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; = margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font = face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" style=3D"font: 12.0px = Helvetica"><b>Eastward-heading flocks were</b> 200+600+20+400+100 =3D<b> = total of 1320 peeps</b>.</font></div><div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; = margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal = normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div = style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; = margin-left: 0px; "><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" style=3D"font: = 12.0px Helvetica">As I said earlier, <b>no falcons</b> (and no eagles = today)<b> </b>were noted this evening in this area.</font></div><div = style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; = margin-left: 0px; "><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" style=3D"font: = 12.0px Helvetica">-------------------</font></div><div><blockquote = type=3D"cite"><div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; = margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face=3D"Helvetica" = size=3D"3" color=3D"#000000" style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: = #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" = style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica">"James W. Wolford" <<a = href=3D"mailto:jimwolford@eastlink.ca">jimwolford@eastlink.ca</a>></fon= t></div><div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: = 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" = color=3D"#000000" style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: = #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" = style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica">August 6, 2012 4:26:39 PM = ADT</font></div><div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; = margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face=3D"Helvetica" = size=3D"3" color=3D"#000000" style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: = #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" = style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>shorebirds, Evangeline Beach, just = after high tide, Aug. 5/12</b></font></div><div style=3D"margin-top: = 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; = min-height: 14px; "><br></div> <div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; = margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font = face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>AUG. = 5, 2012</b> - Daytime<b> high tide </b>was at <b>4 p.m.</b> Pat = & I got to the Evangeline Beach Canteen & Motel parking lot at = high tide. We got ice cream cones, and Wayne Neily did the = same. He saw one flock of peeps fly by heading west and another = big flock out over the water wheeling around. Pat & I then = drove to <b>East Point at The Guzzle</b> and did a short dyke walk, and = then at 5 p.m. I walked down to where the striped-bass fishers = were. There were about 15 least sandpipers in the grasses above = the high tide line. Then <b>at 5:05 p.m., for about 2-3 minutes = there was a parade of flock after flock of peeps</b>, each flock = numbering 20 to 50, 100 to 200, and up to about 700 -- many flocks went = by, nearly all flying from the east and south (i.e. up the Gaspereau = River somewhere) and passing by the fishers and heading westward without = stopping. I did not keep a count, but I would guess a total of = 6-7000 peeps went by in 2-3 minutes. Then five minutes later, = another few flocks likewise followed the same pattern. I saw only = one flock flying the other way (inland), and that was only about 100 = birds.</font></div><div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; = margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face=3D"Helvetica" = size=3D"3" style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica"><br></font></div><div = style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; = margin-left: 0px; "><div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; = margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face=3D"Helvetica" = size=3D"3" style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica">I interviewed one of the<b> = fishers</b>, and he said he couldn't recall when the last "keeper" = <b>striped bass </b>was caught, but that several "keepers" were caught = by researchers in the <b>Gaspereau River</b> in the Spring (spawning = run?). This fisher said that collectively only 2 small stripers = were caught at The Guzzle today. But he also said that<b> tagging = research on the stripers</b> in ongoing still, and that he personally = had caught 8 tagged fish earlier this year -- the taggin info' is then = reported to the<b> researchers (Jeremy Broome et al.</b> at Acadia Univ. = Biol.) and eventually he will get info' back on where and when the = tagging was done.</font></div></div><div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; = margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal = normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div = style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; = margin-left: 0px; "><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" style=3D"font: = 12.0px Helvetica">Along the dykes were lots of <b>butterflies</b>, = mostly cabbage whites, a few sulphurs (prob. clouded), 2 black = swallowtails, and 1-2 red admirals.</font></div><div style=3D"margin-top: = 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font = face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" style=3D"font: 12.0px = Helvetica"><br></font></div><div style=3D"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: = 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face=3D"Helvetica" = size=3D"3" style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica">Cheers from Jim in = Wolfville.</font></div><div><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" = style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica"><br></font></div> = </blockquote></div><br></body></html>= --Apple-Mail-45-994495874--
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