Playing Catch-Up

A number of good birds had accumulated in my absence. My first order of business upon returning to town on August 3rd was the morning high tide at Boundary Bay. The main objective: Bar-tailed Godwit. I had read reports about this bird in agony for ten days, but with reports continuing through to August 1st, it seemed that I had a reasonable chance of seeing this bird.

The morning tide was perfect and thousand of peeps fed close to the dyke in the soft morning light. However, only about 200 plovers were present at 104th St., whereas up to 900 had been reported accompanying the godwit. With no other plovers to be seen in either direction, I feared that many birds had moved out in the last two days. A Red Knot was with the plovers and the Franklin's Gull flew past back and forth a few times; a good year bird, but not the primary target.

#229 - Franklin's Gull - 3 Aug 2015 - 104th St., Boundary Bay

I was joined by Mel and Yousif and we decided to walk west towards the mansion as the tide began to recede. A mixed flock east of the mansion had my first Baird's Sandpiper of the year (#230). Then, coming from the other direction, the Tabak brothers alerted us that the Bar-tailed Godwit was present with a large plover flock west of 88th Street. At this distance, hundreds of tiny heat-distorted blobs were all that was visible through the scope. It was time to boogie. As we drew nearer along the dyke, the flock moved further away in pursuit of the falling tide. It seemed as if we were't getting any closer and I considered aborting and returning on the rising evening tide instead, but was persuaded otherwise. Just when we got as close as we would get, without fail the flock took flight, wheeling back and forth above the mudflats. Serendipitously, I quickly locked on to a larger bird and we were soon all watching it in flight among the plovers. Definitely a godwit... with a plain barred underwing, barred tail, and no cinnamon tones; this was it, the object of my despair! We watched it land and decided to walk out on the flats for better views, but turned back because heat distortion proved too intense. As lousy as those views were, I remember it as clearly as the photo below. 

#231 - Bar-tailed Godwit - 3 Aug 2015 - 88th St., Boundary Bay. (Photo from Cairns, Australia; because nothing makes a sighting more credible than a photo from somewhere else.)

I returned on the evening tide hoping for better views of the barwit, and to try for a hudwit that we learned was seen in overflight the previous evening. The Hudsonian Godwit was present with plovers in front of 104th St., completing my godwit slam quite early in the year and distracting me sufficiently long that I did not make it to 88th St. to look again for the barwit until after the tide had risen.

#232 - Hudsonian Godwit - 3 Aug 2015 - 104th St., Boundary Bay.

The following morning's high tide at Boundary Bay did not produce either of the godwits, though one Pacific Golden-Plovers was still kicking about, as was the Franklin's Gull. It now seemed I was quite lucky to have seen the barwit. Meanwhile, hot shorebirds continued with the arrival of a Stilt Sandpiper at Reifel, feeding in the company of two Red-necked Phalaropes and three Lesser Yellowlegs. All three species were year birds! 

#233 Red-necked Phalarope, #234 Lesser Yellowlegs and #235 Stilt Sandpiper - 4 Aug 2015 - Reifel Bird Sanctuary.

My latest addition came from acting upon a call about a Solitary Sandpiper at Iona; this is a bird I generally bump in to at some point in the year, but was very relieved to get because I don't like the idea of "bumping" during a big year.

#236 Solitary Sandpiper - 6 Aug 2015 - Iona inner ponds.

Although none of these are mega-rarities, it is quite a good start to the shorebird migration for this early in August. There are still many weeks of it ahead and almost endless possibilities.

Count update: 236 + 1 as of August 6.