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--Apple-Mail-41-817662800 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed > Date: July 19, 2013 4:20:14 PM ADT > To: Nature BNS <nature@blomidonnaturalists.ca>, Diana Hamilton > <dhamilto@mta.ca>, Sherman Boates <boatesjs@gov.ns.ca>, Sue Abbott > <sabbott@bsc-eoc.org>, Julie Paquet <Julie.Paquet@ec.gc.ca> > Subject: [ValleyNature] Evangeline Beach shorebirds etc., July > 19/13 (a bit long) > > JULY 19, 2013 - EVANGELINE BEACH -- This morning was quite rainy > and overcast, but by 11:30 a.m. (high tide was 10 a.m.) the rain > was very light, almost a drizzle, which gradually lightened more > and then quit while I did a vigil from my car in the canteen > parking lot (car with driver-side facing Cape Blomidon (north). > Compared with yesterday's bright and blinding sunlight, today the > visibility was perfect, with the flying small shorebirds (peeps) > very easy to see against the light gray sky. The ebbing water/ > flats edge was quite close to me when I started, versus much > further out/advanced at my start yesterday. Thus during my watch > from 11:30 a.m. to 12:18 p.m., the flats went from quite narrow to > fairly broad, but nowhere near how far the water would eventually > recede by low tide, which would have been three hours later. > > Here is the report from my vigil today: Today I saw a total of 658 > "peeps" or small shorebirds (prob. mostly semipalmated sandpipers), > which is about 200 more than seen yesterday. All of these were > flying along or parallel to the shore, from east to west, and none > that I watched landed at all, heading out of sight to the west > (toward the mouth of the Cornwallis River). Flock sizes, in order > from 11:30 a.m. to 12:08 p.m., were: 25 + 20 + 35 + 25 + 350 + 20 + > 60 + 3 + 20 + 20 + 20 + 20 + 30 + 10. Very probably I missed some > peeps, since, like yesterday, the first small flock occurred just > when I arrived. > > Other birds seen were 9 double-crested cormorants, 18 herring > gulls, 5 great black-backed gulls, and 2 immature bald eagles. > > A surprise seen fairly close to shore was a SEAL, very probably a > harbour seal, seen only briefly and distantly. > > I ended my vigil at 12:18 p.m. > --------------------------- > > FURTHER GENERAL INFO' ON OUR MIGRANT SHOREBIRDS here in the Minas > Basin Important Bird Area: > > For those who don't know, I will summarize the season for the south- > bound migrant shorebirds at this site (especially semipalmated > sandpipers). After mostly wintering in South America, most of them > take a different route on their migration north through Spring to > arrive in the Low Arctic, west of Hudson Bay across to Alaska, > where they court, nest, and raise juveniles. Female adults > incubate the eggs, then the male raises the chicks, while the > female can recover & fatten up & migrate south before the others. > The earliest southbound migrants arrive from late June to (mostly) > mid-July. The next wave of migrants is mostly males, who have by > then abandoned the independent juveniles in the north and migrated > south. Finally the third wave, largely naive juveniles, show up > here (these three "waves" are herein greatly oversimplified). All > of them are dependent on the nutritious mudflats for fattening up > for that long, non-stop-over-the-water, flight to northern South > America (Suriname). Thus the season here is a long one, from early > to mid-July to well into September and later to October. During > those many weeks, flocks are constantly arriving while others are > departing, when conditions are right for long flights. (Also > consider the common sense that says, if the semi's were not really > good at this, natural selection would have weeded out this > migratory route.) Individual semi' sandpipers have been thought to > spend 10 to 14 days here in fattening up, but there is some concern > that this length of stay could be longer than previously. One > possible reason of many is that commercial digging of baitworms/ > bloodworms (Glycera) here for bait for sport-fishing in eastern > U.S. results in some of the prey animals like mud shrimps becoming > not only less abundant but also less available to the semi' > sandpipers. > > Here I will invite comments from Julie Paquet of Can. Wildl. > Service, Sherman Boates of N.S. Dept. of Nat. Resources, and > especially Diana Hamilton of Mount Allison University, who has had > a team studying all of this for quite a few years, with many > publications. One of the things they have discovered is that the > diet of the semi' sandpipers is much more diverse than previously > thought. > > Additional important perspective is that these shorebirds have been > showing gradual population declines during recent decades, and the > reasons are poorly understood, I think. Quality of nesting > habitats and overwintering habitats are big questions, in addition > to all of the stop-over spots like ours here. The local mudflats > are extremely biodiverse and incredibly productive (think of the > salt-marsh sediment and Grand Pre agricultural crops on the > dykelands, which used to be tidal marshes). > ------------------------- > Cheers from Jim in Wolfville. > _______________________________________________ > Nature mailing list > Nature@blomidonnaturalists.ca > http://blomidonnaturalists.ca/mailman/listinfo/ > nature_blomidonnaturalists.ca --Apple-Mail-41-817662800 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><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>Date: </b></font><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" = style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica">July 19, 2013 4:20:14 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>To: </b></font><font face=3D"Helvetica" size=3D"3" = style=3D"font: 12.0px Helvetica">Nature BNS <<a = href=3D"mailto:nature@blomidonnaturalists.ca">nature@blomidonnaturalists.c= a</a>>, Diana Hamilton <<a = href=3D"mailto:dhamilto@mta.ca">dhamilto@mta.ca</a>>