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Saturday, May 19, 2012

A wader day


May continues to surprise, with a few year ticks still dribbling in. Since the last post, I’ve jammed a huge flock of 16 (count ‘em!) bar-tailed godwits and a soaringbuzzard, as well as a wee late fall of spotted flycatchers (at least 8). Wasn’t expecting much today on the mig front, and couldn’t do better than 2 collared doves and a lingering spotted flycatcher. However, waders were on the move today, as a look at Long Strand showed – another 2 bar-tailed godwitsconsorting with a knot!! And lingering in view for several minutes! Unheard of!
Noticed a massive number of hirundines on the deck in the horse field by the lake late morning – there must have been at least 150 swallows, c30 house martinsand  the odd sand martin hunkered down – never seen them sheltering like that before! By mid-afternoon, numbers had at least doubled, but couldn’t pull anything rare out of the bag. 10 dunlin on the lakeshore was another spring wader bonus though – 113 and counting!

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