Dunlins

Hickory Valley, Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton ON. May 19^th.2021. On this morning’s early transect I was a little surprised to find several shorebird species picking for food on some mudflats. Specifically: one Greater and two Lesser Yellowlegs, five Least Sandpipers, a Semi–palmated Plover, two Dunlins and four Killdeer.  Killdeer are common enough, they’re a breeding summer resident so not a surprise,  but the other five species were all worth several minutes study and enjoyment. Digging a little deeper, the Least Sandpipers, Semi-palmated Plover and Dunlin were kind of special; not rare but uncommon, especially now, in spring, when they have a great urge to make haste to their Arctic breeding grounds. Most northbound shorebirds like these follow a flightpath somewhat closer to the Atlantic Ocean, we are a little bit too far west to suit the goal of the vast majority.

Among today’s visitors, the Dunlins with their black bellies are perhaps the most striking, they reminded me of past visits to Cape May in coastal New Jersey where the spring migration of shorebirds is an almost intoxicating spectacle.

You’ll see Dunlins and a variety of other shorebird species in the accompanying photos from those Cape May trips.  The glory of those days makes our helping of spring shorebirds seem meagre but made today’s Dunlins my Birds of the Day.