Hello Whimbrel Whatchers Suddenly its Summer. The bushes are all a- bloomin' the bugs are all a- buzzin' and I'm sure the Shorebirds are suddenly in a hurry to get to where they are all a-goin'.
So today we had 145 Whimbrel that we could identify, there were 468 far-off possibles lost in the smog and haze, 77 Black-Bellied Plovers, 445 Dunlin,2 Semipalmated Sandpipers, and 1 Semipalmated Plover. Which begs the question - do 2 Semipalmated Sandpipers together make one Completelypalmated Sandpiper? If that doesn't stretch your mind enough yet, consider this - Common Loons, of which there were 29 today before I gave up counting, are supposed to be dying off from Botulism E. (No space here fro the whole sad story but if you really want to hear it, have a look somewhere like this...http://www.lakehuron.ca/uploads/pdf/Botulism.E.Summary.pdf . Yet there were more loons last year than we ever counted before and this year looks to be coming up pretty good as well. Hope and pray that we haven't screwed this place up completely. On a lighter looney vane have you ever noticed that most loons fly with their mouths open? I wonder if that is a long-distant migratory habit since they have to work so hard flapping their little wings to stay aloft that they need more air than other birds of a comparable size? stay cool? or what? Do Red -Throated Loons do it too (there were 2 today) ? And if not, why not? We are anxious to hear as we always are from our birding brethren down in Virginia if any Whimbrels lifted off last night as it seems we can expect to see at least half of them next morning. And how many are still down there to fire our expectations? Technology seems to be opening up the scope of our knowledge more and more every day so that someday soon we may be able to find out where the other half goes before we extinguish the entire species. Do you think that if somebody discovered a place where a big bunch of Shorebirds stopped each year on their migration to chill out for a few hours and science was able to tell whether that rest stop was essential to the health of the species, and that place was just a short distance from Sam Smith Park that we could get the developers to leave it alone without having to pay them millions of taxpayers' dollars? I think I know the answer already but the opportunity to find out for sure may be coming up shortly. More on that later, I'm getting bummed out. See you tomorrow, Tim An Overview of Botulism Type E in Waterbirds on the Lower ...<http://www.lakehuron.ca/uploads/pdf/Botulism.E.Summary.pdf> www.lakehuron.ca An Overview of Botulism Type E in Waterbirds on the Lower Great Lakes 2 Since 1998 Type E botulism has been confirmed by mouse protection test in the _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide
