Chronicles of an Ontario Birder: Presqu'ile Shorebirding

Presqu'ile Shorebirding

It's interesting sometimes how things happen all at once. Like I was saying in my last post, all of September and early October had been pretty quiet on the rarity front. Then 2 megas show up over thanksgiving weekend. During that time, another bird that I needed was found at Presqu'ile Provincial Park, a Purple Sandpiper. Granted this isn't a rarity like my other recent additions, and purples are annual in low numbers around Lake Ontario. It is still a good bird though, and one I wanted to get out of the way before it gets too late in the season.

The section of the park where the bird was seen is closed off on Mondays for hunting, so I waited to go until Tuesday, assuming it was still there. A positive report came in shortly after noon, so I departed Guelph promptly with Alessandra and fought my way east through Toronto traffic towards eastern Ontario. Fall colours are peaking right now, and along the way we enjoyed a nice gradient of reds and yellows beside the highway. Yet another reason why October is my favourite month (with a few other close contenders). I've only been to Presqu'ile once before, back in April when I chased a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher there. During that visit I only had time so see the bird briefly before leaving, so I was looking forward to being able to explore one of Ontario's premier birding spots a bit more.

The Sandpiper was spotted on High Bluff Island, a tiny, partly vegetated island roughly 2 kilometers from the mainland (Owen's Point). By walking along a series of long sand/rock spits you can access High Bluff from the mainland, though as the causeway is barely above the water this can be difficult at times depending on the lake level. On the day we visited it was mostly passable, save for two small sections with a few inches of flowing water. I only had my running shoes on, so I just sucked it up and waded through (honestly it wasn't bad at all for October). Before getting to High Bluff we had to navigate around Gull Island, which sits half way between high bluff and the mainland. Gull Island is the smaller if the two, and is essentially just a slightly raised rocky area, a perfect home for a large number of colonial nesting birds during the summer months. As we made our way down the shore we encountered a nice selection of shorebirds, including Black-bellied Plover, White-rumped, Baird's and Semipalmated Sandpipers and some Sanderlings. A lone Lapland Longspur was a nice highlight as well.

- White-rumped Sandpiper

- Semipalmated Sandpiper

- White-rumped, Baird's Sands and Dunlin

- White-rumped Sandpiper

- White, the rump is

- Lapland Longspur

After that we crossed another sandy spit and arrived at High Bluff, where the sandpiper was meant to be. As we made our way along the shoreline a flock of Black-bellied Plovers flew by, with a lone Red Knot mixed in with them. This was only my 2nd knot of the year, so a cool sighting. It landed briefly, giving me a chance to take a few photos

- Red Knot

A few minutes later three small shorebirds flushed off the rocks ahead of us and whipped by over the surf. 2 Dunlin.... and a Purple Sandpiper! Success, and yearbird #348. It landed just down the shore and continued foraging, allowing us to approach quite closely. Purple Sandpiper was a long-awaited lifer for me, and a good code 3 species to get out of the way.

- Purple Sandpiper

This was definitely some of the best October shorebirding I've done in Ontario. Experiencing the small mixed flocks running along the rocky shorelines during the walk, with the scenic landscape of Presqu'ile in the background was a lovely introduction to the park. The weather was crazy nice for October too, over 20 degrees and sunny, truly "chefs kiss". We celebrated on the way out of the park by getting fish and chips in Brighton... a great way to cap off a productive and birdy day.