Weekend Shorebirds

After weeks of cruely taunting Calgarians - teasing us with one or two days of warm weather only to change moods and leave us shivering and wet over a long weekend - summer has finally made its much anticpated annual appearance. Mid-July also marks the arrival of the first south-bound shorebirds, en route from their arctic nesting grounds to winter in Central and South America. Many species traverse more than 25,000 kilometres in this annual circuit. Hudsonian Godwits fly 13,000 kilometres nonstop between staging sites on James Bay and wintering areas in Patagonia, completing the journey in nine days. My 2,000 kilometres cycled so far this year seem insignificant in comparison.

Shorebird diversity and numbers have been slowly building at the slough east of the hamlet of Shepard. Cycling out to the slough via the WID Canal early Saturday morning I was soon passing through Shepard; Eurasian Collared-Doves are now established in the hamlet and I found four feeding on waste grain at Hay 'N' Oats 'Я' Us. Arriving at the slough I quickly applied some bug spray before pulling out my scope and binoculars; the wet summer has resulted in a burgeoning mosquito population. Scanning the slough, I was delighted to find a variety of shorebirds feeding in the shallow water and mudflats. Baird's Sandpiper were the most abundant 'peep' and several Stilt Sandpipers were associating with Long-billed Dowitchers. Two spinning Red-necked Phalaropes were new for the BIGBY. Suffering several bites despite the bug spray I decided to pack up and make my way home. A quick stop at a slough along the canal turned up a Marsh Wren and Common Yellowthroat singing from the cattails.