Good day.
Today Ian Cannell, Jay Peterson, Andrew Jano and I birded the Leslie Street Spit and for once we had a no wind day. We started out birding through the West Side of the Base, out to Pipit Point and onto Peninsulas B and C and along the way we came up with 74 species, including 25 Waterfowl species and 10 Sparrow species.
Some of the high lights were:-
116 Common Loons, 112 of them off Pipit Point, Red-necked Grebes, N. Shovelers, Canvasbacks, Ring-necked Ducks, N. Pintails, White-winged and Black Scoters, all 3 Mergansers, a juvenile Bald Eagle and an adult Peregrine Falcon on Peninsula B, a juvenile N. Goshawk beside Bay B2, N. Harriers, 13 A. Coots, Golden Plover, A. Woodcock, Bonaparte's Gull, 4 B. Kingfishers, 15 E. Phoebes, 2 Blue-headed Vireos, plenty of both Kinglets, 4 E. Bluebirds, 21 Hermit Thrushes, a late Nashville Warbler, A. Tree, Chipping, Field, 16 Fox, Lincoln's, and Swamp Sparrows and tons of White-throated, White-crowned and song Sparrows, 2 Lapland Longspurs, 3000+ Red-winged Blackbirds heading west in am, and Purple Finch.
The Bufflehead, Long-tailed Duck, and Great black-backed Gull, numbers have increased giving a hint of the Winter to come.
Tomorrow's weather doesn't look too good for birding The Spit but there is always next weekend and maybe Purple Sandpipers and Short-eared Owls will put in an appearance by then and the Waterfowl and Gull numbers should show a bigger increase by then as well.
