Hello fellow birders, citizen scientists, geeks, and wouldbee geeks. I'll have
the attention of all of you before I'm done today.
Today was one of the Colonel Sam's greatest days. I'll get the numbers over
with first, and then we can do some exciting things, hopefully in a concise
fashion that will please the skeptics, and end up with a theory and a plan so
that you can go and see Whimbrels and know when to expect them. Observations
are useless without a plan.
>From 5.40 am to 5.35 pm there were:
1,471 Whimbrels (1,966 left Virginia last night)
380 Dunlin (probably a lot more)
87 Semipalmated sandpipers (again likely lots more)
82 Common Loons (early in the day)
Great Blue Herons, Black crowned Night herons, White winged scoters, and etc.
Today something kinda special happened. We had 37 Whimbrel land on the rocks of
Sam Smith. They stayed a long time. They were reasonably approachable. And if
this isn't news that should be kept like a military secret then I don't know
nuthin'.
Here's why I think this happened:
1. We're in Peak Time for Whimbrels over Toronto, and therefore over Sam Smith
Park. They show up all over the place but nowhere like here.
2.Virginia told us there were almost 2000 birds on the move last night. They
started out there with a tailwind and no rain possible i.e. best conditions for
the start of their migration.
3. There was a strong Northwest wind blowing from Toronto when I got started
this morning at 5:30 so it must have got far enough into the Whimbrels so all
those birds that started off well got slowed down (otherwise there is the
possibility of them flying through in the night and not being seen over Toronto
.)
4.It takes a Whimbrel with a nice tailwind between 9 and 11 hours to get from
the Virginia barrier beaches to here so when the gittin' is good, they may fly
over us in the dark.
5. Because there were many birds leaving Virginia (a given) and there was a
strong headwind (no doubt) the probability of a lot of flyers slowing down and
bucking strong headwinds as they approached Toronto was extremely high.
which means that instead of seeing flocks moving rapidly from east to west and
disappearing you should see some birds circling around and picking up
stragglers as their numbers increase. They're tired and stressed because
they're over budget. And they will fly over your head more than once.
You will see behaviour oriented toward landing. Its easy to see 50 birds coming
right at you with their feet out..The big flocks fly over but instead of moving
straight through to the NorthWest they circle back again and again often
picking up new flock members. You will get very excited when you know they are
going to land right at your feet. Your heart will break when they try and try
but have to move on because somebody shows up with a dog or the guy next to you
gets excited and waves his arms. (Not you was it?)
6. Here's what you do. Sam Smith Park has structure runing East/ West that
Whimbrels, if they don't see any dogs or people making quick movements will
land on to rest. I saw them land 25 years ago when the park was just a
moonscape and saw it again last year briefly but I did not record the
conditions. If there are enough of us to guard all the approaches and
temporarily re-direct
the pedestrian and bike traffic a day like today will entice tired birds that
come in the afternoon to land for a rest. So
7. Peak time ie 24th of May or later,( recently it seem s to be coming a day or
2 later.), Northwest or West wind, lots of birds confirmed leaving their last
staging area, and later in the morning than you might think, or even afternoon,
the exhausted stragglers will be starting to fly slower and slowerlooking at
landing at your feet. I find this one of the most exciting things that can
happen in birding, and I know so do you. So recruit some friends, follow this
easy recipe and you will have a heart-stopping experience not way up in
someplace like James bay but right here in our home patch.
Tomorrow.
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