Shorebirds and Waterfowl – The Eastern Lagoons with Tony Beck

Thursday Oct 8. We met at Petrie Island at 7:30 am.
Today there was Heather, Emily, Tony & me.

We admired the Wood Duck drakes in their breeding plumage until everyone was ready to head to Alfred to look for the Red Phalarope that had been reported by Jacques Bouvier.

We got to Alfred, gassed up Heather’s car, and went straight to the lagoons viewing tower.
There was lots of activity – many Common Moorhens, American Coots, Ruddy Ducks, Northern Shovellers and Mallards. We had great views of a Northern Harrier. There were several Redheads and Green-winged Teal, but the hoped-for Phalarope could not be located. A couple of other birders with passes showed up, but they did not find it either.

We decided to patrol the back roads on the way to Casselman lagoons. We saw a Red-tailed Hawk, an early Rough-legged Hawk and an American Kestrel. We stopped at a freshly ploughed field, and were rewarded when about 40 American Golden Plovers arrived, including some adults. We also saw a Savannah Sparrow and several Song Sparrows.

At Casselman Lagoons, we had about 8 Snow Geese, more Ruddy Ducks, a couple of Cackling Geese, and a single Surf Scoter. We drove back via Milton Road, but did not see any Sandhill Cranes.