Shorebird Watching at a Lake Erie Harbor
Spent most of Friday at Dunkirk Harbor hoping to see some Shorebirds & migration action.
Thought I’d make a pictorial from my photos and start my own Blog. So here is the start of “BLOG BY GAIL R” .. (name subject to change if I think up something I like better)
Stayed most of the morning at the east end of Wright Beach, here …
EAST END SAND CUT
WRIGHT BEACH at GREAT LAKE ERIE
… at this cut in the sand, made from overflow from a water treatment plant on shore
The weather was changeable, with some sun & blue sky, some steely grey sky & water, some overcast, a light drizzle rainfall.
Mixed in with the usual Ring-billed Gulls, Herring Gulls, & Great Black-backed Gulls on the shoreline, are a few Caspian Terns, and a few Semi-palmated Plovers, Semi-palmated Sandpipers, Sanderling, Least Sandpiper, 1 Western Sandpiper (scarce), Killdeer, and 1 Bairds Sandpiper (scarce)
The lake here is surprisingly shallow & you can walk out hundreds of feet into the lake without getting your head wet. The sand is soft & rock free and, since this is a beach, is groomed daily in season.
Highlight of the day at this spot was flyovers by 8 Bald Eagles!
7 juvie Bald Eagles plus 1 adult Bald Eagle. I missed a 2nd adult Baldie that flew thru low, carrying a fish in its talons, darnit.
4 of the juvie Bald Eagles were all flying together, 2 high above and another 2 directly below them. A 5th juvie flew low, solo, west-to-east. And later, a pair of juvie Bald Eagles flying together, mid-height.
Juvenile BALD EAGLE on 9/11/09
The adult Bald Eagle was flying west-to-east, very low over the water, fishing. But unfortunatley, it did not spot a fish to dive down after and so continued on its way.
The water is very clear, about the only advantage of the ongoing Lake Erie Zebra Mussel infestation. There are so many Zebra Mussels that, by their feeding, they filter the water.
MIDWAY SAND CUT
Another good spot for shorebird watching at Wright Beach is this midway sand cut made from overflow, under road drainage than empties into Lake Erie. This is a combination sandy beach & mudflats
This is my favorite place to park & just sit in one place and let the birds come to me. If there are rarities around, enough birders will be walking around at the ends of the beach, near and on the cliffs & breakwalls, that they will chase the birds down to me at the center anyways, so ez birding for me with all the comfys of home sweet car.
See that shadow in lower-right corner of photo “Midway Sand Cut” ?
That is from the roadside/walkway railing and shows you how close you can drive, or walk, right up to the lake along here. You can park your vehicle at this railing & just sit ‘n watch the water & listen to the surf & Gulls.
Highlight of the day at this spot was a lone Black-bellied Plover that was at the harbor, in the muck, when I got there (at this spot) & was still there when I left 6 hours later
BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER
BUT that same Midway Sand Cut railing is NOT such a hot place to park in the winter!
Notice something odd ?
In the wintertime photos of Lake Erie, this harbor is openwater all winter, even with all that cold & ice all around it.
That’s because of hot water discharge into the lake from an electric power generating plant located in the harbor. One of the few coal burning power plants left in NY State.
BTW my car is a PT Cruiser Woodie I call “Creampuff”, and it is just ideal for hobbies, including birdwatching. Plenty of space to stow gear out of sight and several places, front & back, to plug in electronics & gadgets. Cruiser rear seats are raised a la theater seating, so if you have birding-buddies with you, they get a better view.
Cruisers have a rear hatch shelf that pulls out to use as a tabletop, plus more storage underneath, so can handle plenty of spotting scopes and tripods, binoculars, books, field guides, laptops, gadgets, food & drink.. and bird right out of your car.
Here’s a pic of my Lil’ Creampuff …
Another highlight of the Wright Beach, east end, was a flyover by a lone Osprey.
Had enough time to snap 1 pic which isn’t great but, since the only Osprey all day, I’ll post it anyways …
OSPREY
Moving along to the west, at the Main Street Beach at the west end of Wright Beach …
MAIN ST. BEACH
This area of the beach is more of a sand dune habitat …
The highlights from this habitat were 6 Turkey Vultures on the sandy beach.
Several were juveniles, their faces not yet the bright red with white nosetip of the adults.
One juvenile in particular caught my attention and after studying its photo, I decided it had some plastic litter or fishline wrapped around the top of its head.. or else it was wearing a “‘ ‘do rag”.
Poor thing will probably have some difficulties as its skull grows while banded with that garbage.
Juvie TURKEY VULTURE
Also at this beach were several Caspian Terns, including a juvenile Caspian Tern which still had the juvie smaller & lighter colored bill & legs. Little guy was still food begging but it did no good as the adults just ignored him.
At the far end of this habitat, where sand meets muck at the rock breakwall, where 2 Ruddy Turnstones.
Unfortunately I did not get a chance for any photos of them and had just quick glances.
The usual assortment of Gulls was present all day, numbering in the many hundreds if not thousands of birds.
Mainly they were Ring-billed Gulls.
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