{"id":1202,"date":"2011-08-26T22:58:58","date_gmt":"2011-08-27T05:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crazym.ca\/?p=1202"},"modified":"2011-12-05T23:31:12","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T07:31:12","slug":"sandpipers-falcon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crazym.ca\/?p=1202","title":{"rendered":"Sandpipers & Falcon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late this afternoon I headed out to Boundary Bay for the high tide. I was a little late as when I arrived the tide was already up to the dyke. Then I was greeted by a group of birders already there who promptly joked how I could turn around and go home as there was nothing there. Not exactly the way you want to start. We chatted briefly and some left to check out other areas.<\/p>\n

I decided to stick around and headed west along the dyke. Only a few minutes in to my walk I noticed something brown in amongst the Ring-billed Gulls.<\/p>\n

\"Whimbrel\"
Whimbrel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a Whimbrel. I had seen one fly by about three weeks ago, but it did not land. This was a good start considering nothing was around earlier. While watching and waiting to see if the Whimbrel would move in to a better spot,<\/p>\n

\"Peregrine
Peregrine Falcon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

… a Peregrine Falcon swooped in and flushed everything including the gulls. So much for a better shot of the Whimbrel.<\/p>\n

Further along the dyke I noticed a few different species of sandpipers around the old pilings. I slowly worked my way down to the beach and set up.<\/p>\n

\"Baird's
Baird's Sandpiper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first to wander in fairly close was a Baird’s Sandpiper.<\/p>\n

\"Baird's
Baird's Sandpiper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These were the first Baird’s I have seen this season.<\/p>\n

\"Baird's
Baird's Sandpiper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And so far, so good with the birds not being to concerned with my being there.<\/p>\n

\"Least
Least Sandpiper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next up in this group were some Least Sandpipers.<\/p>\n

\"Least
Least Sandpiper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They have been frequenting the bay for awhile now.<\/p>\n

\"Pectoral
Pectoral Sandpiper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another first for this season in this mixed group were some Pectoral Sandpipers.<\/p>\n

\"Pectoral
Pectoral Sandpiper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They were also quite cooperative and unconcerned with me.<\/p>\n

\"Ruddy
Ruddy Turnstone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The bonus birds,<\/p>\n

\"Ruddy
Ruddy Turnstone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

… were three Ruddy Turnstones.<\/p>\n

\"Pectoral
Pectoral Sandpiper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While watching the Turnstones, this Pectoral Sandpiper wandered by in front of me.<\/p>\n

\"Ruddy
Ruddy Turnstone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then it was back to the Turnstones,<\/p>\n

\"Ruddy
Ruddy Turnstone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

… for a couple more shots. It was nice being a little closer to them than last week. This was turning into a good afternoon when,<\/p>\n

\"Peregrine
Peregrine Falcon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

… the Peregrine Falcon made another pass along the dyke flushing everything again.<\/p>\n

\"Peregrine
Peregrine Falcon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At least I managed a couple of flight shots. After this I started back as some plovers were starting to land in that area. I met up with a couple of other birders still around and we managed to spot a Godwit amongst the plovers, but it far too distant for any photos. While continuing to scan the beach area I saw the Whimbrel fly by and land back in the area I had just left. Wanting to try for some better shots of it I headed back.<\/p>\n

\"Whimbrel\"
Whimbrel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once again it started off amongst some Ring-billed Gulls,<\/p>\n

\"Whimbrel\"
Whimbrel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But soon moved off on its own,<\/p>\n

\"Whimbrel\"
Whimbrel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

… while foraging along the beach.<\/p>\n

\"Whimbrel\"
Whimbrel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a little leery of me,<\/p>\n

\"Whimbrel\"
Whimbrel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

… but did not mind providing I did not push the boundaries. This is something you have to watch and get a feel for with each bird.<\/p>\n

\"Pectoral
Pectoral Sandpiper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While taking these last shots of the Whilbrel I wandered right into to some more Pecs.<\/p>\n

\"Pectoral
Pectoral Sandpiper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The light was fading now and it was time to head back. Considering initial indications were that nothing was around, it turned into a great afternoon and fairly lengthy post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late this afternoon I headed out to Boundary Bay for the high tide. I was a little late as when I arrived the tide was already up to the dyke. Then I was greeted by a group of birders already there who promptly joked how I could turn around and go home as there was … Continue reading “Sandpipers & Falcon”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[41,45,33,4,57,56],"class_list":["post-1202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birding-in-british-columbia","category-boundary-bay","tag-bairds-sandpiper","tag-least-sandpiper","tag-pectoral-sandpiper","tag-peregrine-falcon","tag-ruddy-turnstone","tag-whimbrel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crazym.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crazym.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crazym.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crazym.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crazym.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1202"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/crazym.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1229,"href":"https:\/\/crazym.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions\/1229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crazym.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crazym.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crazym.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}