Just in case you hadn’t noticed, shore birds have been the theme for a while now. With the migration still ongoing and the chance of locating the odd rarity, it was back out to Boundary Bay around noon to catch the rising tide. As usual my walk started from 104 St. and headed west from there.
First up this afternoon,
… was this lone Western Sandpiper.
While it is more common to find them in groups or with other birds,
… every once in a while there will be the odd man out. Not long after leaving this little fellow, another reason for coming back today.
The American Golden-Plovers were still present.
This one tucked away resting,
… and then getting up and doing a nice stretch. Notice no black armpit like the Black-bellied Plover.
The last outing where I managed some distant, but decent shots, was far too short.
Today I was able to get much closer,
… and spend more time with not one, but two birds. While photographing these birds I noticed a couple of other groups further along the beach that I decided to check out.
The first was a pair of Baird’s Sandpipers,
… that were also quite cooperative. Up next,
… was about six Pectoral Sandpipers. I wanted to check this group out for possible Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, but no such luck today.
In with them was a Least Sandpiper. While it was initially resting and facing away from me,
… it started foraging and passed by right in front of me. Then I made my way back,
… locating the American Golden-Plovers pretty much where I had left them. At this point another photographer was making his way towards me. Having had some good quality time with them already, I slowly backed out so as to not flush the birds and pointed them out to him. John thanked me for the gesture and was appreciative of the opportunity to photograph these birds. Being such wonderful day I stuck around a while longer after the high tide.
The American Pipits were still plentiful along the beach,
… but I did not spend a whole lot of time with them.
I spent more time watching the groups of Pectoral Sandpipers. They were still coming and going as the sun was going down,
… but I still could not turn one into a Sharp-tailed. None the less, a fairly productive day.