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Falls Lake shorebirds



Hi,

Here you are my shorebirds count from Falls Lake West from Lake Ridge
Airport (counting from an old railroad spot):

Killdeer - 53
Semipalmated Plover - 53
Short-billed Dowitcher - 2 juv (first juv in my live!)
Greater Yellowlegs - 1
Lesser Yellow. - 22 (mostly ad)
Solitary Sand. - 15
Spotted Sand. - 12 (mostly juv)
Stilt Sand. - 24 (22 ad and 2 juv)
Pectoral Sand. - 278
White-rumped Sand. - 3 ad
Western Sand. - 3 juv 1 ad
Semipalmated Sand. - 63 (at least 15 juv.)
Least Sand. - 71 (some 50% ad)

We have just had a weather change so more birds appeared, some in
surprisingly good number (at least for me) like Stilt Sandpipers. Most
Killdeers seams to be gone (only some 30% of last count). Still have no
joy with Sanderling, which is in fact very, very rare inland Europe,
nevertheless hopefully I will make that bird one day inland here as
well. There were more juveniles and will be much more I hope in near
future. In a week or two we may expect mostly juveniles in their nice
and bright plumage.
There was also 1 juv Cooper's Hawk which made a little mass among birds
but after this panic they start to feed in better "order", means
Semipalmated with Samipalmated, Least with Least and Pectoral with
Pectorals or Plovers with Plovers so it was easier to find less numerous
species like Western.
There was 1 ad Black Tern passing by heading West.
The Falls Lake spot is very, very good place to learn shorebirds. I am
going to visit it at Sunday morning from 7 till 9. If anybody would like
to have some shorebirds ID or aging discussion or would like to learn
how to deal with these little guys, please join me.
As far as "drinking Hummingbirds" I think it is highly possible that
they are not able to find enough amount of food in flowers due to very
dry season. Feeders are always "fool of sweet water" so they gather
around such spots. I have some 12 of these warriors and they drink like
"an old sailor".

Mike
--
************************************************
Michal Skakuj  Ph.D.
4600 University Drive apt. 1312
Durham, NC 27707
phone:        919 402 9961
mobile phone: 919 599 3040