Ottawa NWR shorebirds

Hello folks,

Today I led an expedition to the far reaches of Ottawa NWR with Hank Hiris. Though the avocet from the week before was gone, there were still good birds around. The highlight was an Upland sandpiper, seemingly out of place habitat-wise, at pool 2a. It was spotted by Linda Monnes, and identified by Helen Taft. This was a life bird for Linda, and she really earned it! The bird was seen in the southeast corner of pool 2a, in the vicinity of the other shorebirds. If you walk north about 25 yards from the intersection of the trails at the southeast corner of 2a, you will come to a break in the willows where there is a good view of the shorebirds feeding. The upland was in an area of American lotus plants (large lily-pad leaves with pale yellow blooms) about 100 yards looking due west from the break in the trees. It appeared only briefly before hiding amongst the lotus. The habitat has dried up some and the dowitchers have mostly left, save for one in deeper water in the far west end of 2a. The egrets found the change to their liking, as a handful of snowies and immature little blues were also seen at 2a. An adult little blue was seen again at pool MS 8b. Here again is a map of the Ottawa walking trails from the Black Swamp Bird Observatory website:

http://www.bsbo.org/birding/pdf/OttawaNWR-Trails.pdf

Here are some of the other shorebirds seen during our trip:

Semipalmated plover
Killdeer
Long-billed dowitcher
Great yellowlegs
Lesser yellowlegs
Solitary sandpiper
Stilt sandpiper
Pectoral sandpiper
Spotted sandpiper
Least sandpiper
Semipalmated sandpiper
White-rumped sandpiper