The Start of the Shorebird Migration

July is a great month to spend at the beach and observe the amazing shorebird migration. In Metro Vancouver, we are lucky to be situated along the Pacific Flyway in an area that offers some of the country's best shorebird viewing opportunities: the Fraser River Estuary. The Fraser River Estuary is designated as a site of Hemispheric Importance in the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN). Several million shorebirds pass over the estuary each year in migration and tens of thousands remain for the winter. Shorebirds form enormous concentrations at such key staging areas along their migration route. Each area provides an abundance of food resources that enable birds to quickly replenish their energy reserves and complete the next leg of their journey. These staging areas underpin their entire migration system, but also lend great vulnerability to their users. Such enormous concentrations of birds at relatively few, widely spaced locations break the usual relationship between a species' abundance and its immunity to extinction, while highlighting the conservation value of these special places.

Western Sandpipers lead the shorebird migration throughout much of the fall on the Fraser River Estuary.

Semipalmated Sandpipers move through in small numbers and their migration through our area will largely be over by the end of August. 

Least Sandpipers forage in small flocks in drier and more vegetated areas compared to Westerns, which dominate the open mudflats.

Fall shorebirds can make or break a big year in Metro Vancouver. There are numerous locally uncommon species that require determined and routine circuits of the local shorebird hotspots to see, plus almost endless possibilities for unexpected vagrants.This year, the fall shorebird season started off slowly with a pair of Pacific Golden-Plovers on July 19 being the only notable species I've observed thus far. Naturally, five days after leaving town for work, the first truly rare shorebird of the season showed up on July 24: Bar-tailed Godwit. I'm hoping its a really tired and hungry one and needs at least another 9 days to build up its fat reserves.

#228 - Pacific Golden-Plover - July 19, 2015 - Boundary Bay, BC. 

"koWIT" said one golden-plover to the other. (Translation: "race you across the Pacific".)

Being just a spectator from afar for the remainder of July, it seems 228 will be my month-end total. While finding another 22 species in five months doesn't initially seem like an unreasonable prospect, reviewing my "Target Species" on eBird suggests fairly limited opportunity. Here are the 30 most frequently reported species in Metro Vancouver between now and end of December that I still need for my year list.