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.
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| West Perth Wetlands |
The most common shorebird here were Lesser Yellowlegs.
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| 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.
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| 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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