American Avocet at Ottawa Refuge, Aug. 8

Hello everybody,

I was amongst an impressive group of 23 birders who braved the rainy weather yesterday to see shorebirds on a walk at Ottawa led by Chris Knoll. The highlight was an American Avocet seen in pool 2a along with many other shorebird species. It had apparently arrived very recently because it had not been reported by anyone who had been there on Friday. We walked around pool 2a, but the east side of this impoundment was by far the most productive. Here is a link to a map of Ottawa's walking trails from Black Swamp Bird Observatory's web site: http://www.bsbo.org/birding/pdf/OttawaNWR-Trails.pdf
A little blue heron was also spotted in MS 8b. Here are some other notable shorebird species seen during our walk:

Common snipe
Short-billed dowitcher
Lesser yellowlegs
Greater yellowlegs
Solitary sandpiper
Pectoral sandpiper
Stilt sandpiper
Spotted sandpiper
Least sandpiper
Semipalmated sandpiper