Stilt Sandpiper:
4 north of Rockport 9th; 1 pond south of Sarita on Highway77 10th with 7 Mc Allen sewage farm 12th and 3 Santa Ana 12th; up to 12 with one in full summer on south-east oil field High Island 17-21st. - I have some excellent slides of these birds somewhere hidden in the house!
and latterly 2 juveniles on a prairie pothole south of Calgary in August 2007 - images below taken with the old Canon 1D mark 2N and 300 f4 lens with 1.4 converter into the sun --these are my notes from the day --
Having checked the sunrise and sunset times on the BBC
weather site on the web for Vancouver I was up bright and early at 05:00 and
wandering around on a nice boardwalk through a little marsh in Canmore in the
dark for one and half hours; entertaining but not good birding; of course I had
not taken into account that Vancouver was 1 hour different to the Rockies;
mistake number three. As it eventually got light birds started to call; then
others called and sparrows called and warblers called and chipped and ticked
and maybe I should have swatted up on my calls before leaving. But in spite of
the noise the only visible birds were American Crows and Ravens. Then just
before having to leave for breakfast birds became visible; American Robins and
Audubon’s Warblers, all seemingly dropping to bits in moult, Oregon Juncos and
Lincoln’s Sparrows also moulting and scruffy and a Yellow Warbler perching
nicely in front of the lower window of a house by the roadside. Maybe the
residents of Canmore are used to opening their curtains and seeing a birder
with a telephoto lens staring into their window or maybe not; quick exit
needed. Day one we headed back to Calgary on the recommendation that a drive
south to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump was an essential spot to visit. Only two
hours south of Calgary—indeed but I had forgotten in five years since my last
trip to Canada just how many sets of traffic lights there are in every village!
Three hours down the road through wide open prairies we were passing large
shallow lakes, Prairie Potholes, covered in wildfowl and waders but we were on
a mission and I couldn’t see a way to get off the highway anyway and we needed
food from the café as well. Not all things go as planned though as anyone who
has been on birding trips with me will realise. Our arrival at the historic
site just happened to coincide with a funeral of one of the key members of
staff so after our 4 hour drive the café was closed for the day; it was blowing
a gale, red hot and dusty; birds one Gray Catbird seriously abraded to say the
least and a Say’s Phoebe; all the Cliff Swallow nests were empty and vacated.
Now I had to work out how to try and get into one of those potholes as the
party were ravenous and there didn’t appear to be any eateries within 100
miles! Passing numerous Swainson’s and Red-tailed Hawks on the long drive back
we managed to get some dodgy fast (I miss typed this as fats which may seem
appropriate) food at a small habitation called Nanton and just across the road
was a track which went apparently quite close to a rather nice looking wetland.
Just an hour folks. Access seemed easy but the high barbed wire surrounding
fences seemed to suggest that birders were not too welcome except in the corner
near the slaughterhouse where the fence had fallen down to allow people to walk
in, obviously. It was windy and muddy but what a place; in a scan of the nearby waders I managed
to locate 8 Killdeer, 8 juv Baird’s sands, 3 juv Least and 10+ Semi-p Sands, a
Solitary Sand, 2 juvenile Stilt Sands, a Wilson’s Snipe, Spotted Sand, 30+
Lesser Yellowlegs and at least 40 Wilson’s Phalaropes. This was not to mention
the 30 odd Blue-winged Teal, a tern probably and Forster’s which flew off
before I had chance to have a good look and the skulking sparrows some of which
were Savannah. In an hour I managed to photograph quite a few of these stunning
juvenile waders before the crew needed to move on and it was back to Canmore
via 700 sets of traffic lights in Calgary.
The adult Stilt Sandpiper at Salinas de Levante Majorca May 1983
Juvenile south of Calgary August 2007
and rubbish images of the Frampton bird
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