Tuesday 21 July 2015

Migration is Underway! Stilt Sandpiper

Although we may be currently settling in to the warmth of mid-summer, fall migration has already begun, with many shorebirds on the move!  Today on my way home from a work site I stopped at the West Perth Wetlands, AKA the Mitchell Sewage Lagoons.  I was rewarded with hundreds of migratory shorebirds that have already bred in the boreal forest and the Arctic coastlines and migrated southwards yet again.

West Perth Wetlands
The most common shorebird here were Lesser Yellowlegs.
Lesser Yellowlegs
I also saw some of the small "peeps" including Least Sandpiper and Semi-palmated Sandpiper


The highlight of the visit was undoubtedly this Stilt Sandpiper, the first of the year for me and a nice adult still in breeding plumage.  It is hard to tell from the photo since it was so far away, but I could see the reddish cheek patch in my scope.  The Stilt Sandpiper is the bird on the right.  Note the white eyebrow and curved bill.

Stilt Sandpiper (right) and Lesser Yellowlegs (left)
As much as I do love summer, this gets me excited for fall migration!

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