Gull Island - Presqu'ile Park Today 26 Sep

[Paul O'Toole]

Super calm day at Presqu'ile today with good shorebirds to be had.

#1. Whimbrel: Took this shot while standing almost waist deep in the lake on the south side of the island. Very tough species to get a shot of.



This one was taken kneeling down hiding in some shrubs.



#2. Ruddy Turnstone





#3. Hudsonian Godwit



#4. Dunlin



#5. Long-billed Dowitcher





#6. Northern Harrier dropped by for lunch

[thouc]

Nice series. I believe the Dowitcher is a Long-billed (low loral angle, no orange internal markings on scapulars, see http://www.surfbirds.com/ID%20Articles/dowitchers1005/dowitchers.html), which was reported from there today.

[Dinusaur]

Beautiful; thanks for sharing.

It is reported that starting today, the Island is off-limit on Fridays and Saturdays as the duck hunting season is underway. I guess the hunters took the day off or you managed to get there before them. Wonder what the impact of hunting is to the shorebirds - do they still stick around?

[Paul O'Toole]

Thats why I went down today, the shorebirds will likely move back to the beach 1 - 4 areas but the area around beach 4/lookout 4 will be out of bounds for hunting also.

[annie]

Wow, awesome shots!

[paul_reeves]

Another nice series Paul.