Last week the Piping plovers were easily seen and well photographed from both the Darlington side of the restricted zone and the Beaton Point side of things. I dropped by there this morning at 7 o'clock and could not see any of the plovers roaming about the restricted zone. I didn't have a spotting scope and therefore only used what I had ... my camera lens. I was also forced to look into the sun, which didn't help. There were a lot of Canada geese camped out within the RZ and also on my side (west of RZ). The only shorebirds that I could see next to the water were three Sanderling. Once in a while, a Spotted sandpiper, or a Killdeer would fly in, but then take off again because they are so hard to please. A single Sanderling approached me from the west and therefore well lit by the sun. It foraged along the shoreline inches from the water while gradually approaching me. I was seated and kept my face behind my camera. At one point it tilted its head as if straining to see what that lump was up ahead. I took no offence. Even though my profile would have been small and non-threatening, it thought otherwise and then squatted down low and jump into the wind and took flight. Fortunately I managed to shoot a few frames before that spectacularly acrobatic take-off.
Other sightings include: Marsh wren, Eastern phoebe, Willow (Ash) flycatcher, Eastern kingbird and fledglings, Yellow warblers and fledglings, Song sparrow, House wren fledgling, Blue-gray gnatcatcher, Common tern, Forster's tern, Caspian tern and a Least sandpiper.
