More Mitchell Birds (And Some From the Farm)

The fact that I was off evening chores, made it an ideal time to hurry out to the Mitchell Sewage Lagoons (West Perth Wetlands) before dark.  I had been a couple weeks since my last visit there and this time of year it is constantly changing as migrants come and go.

I arrived at the lagoons about 5 pm and started my walk.  I was anxious to cover what ground I could in the remaining daylight.    Some of my first ducks of the day were a small group of green-winged teal. 

Continuing on I came across many of the usual mallards.

I don't usually consider canada geese to be unusual, but there were massive numbers on the soccer field.  I estimated 600, but that number is likely an undercount.  It was impressive when most of them took off at once.

The cells farther from the parking lot held more variety in ducks.

Northern shovelers

Mallards and pintail

I picked out black ducks, wigeon and gadwall as well.

Shorebird activity has started to slow down.  The huge numbers of white-rumped sandpipers seem to have mostly moved on and I only counted a handful of them today.

Dunlin seemed to be the dominating shorebird on this occasion.

Nearing the end of my walk, I caught sight of a bird that from a distance looked like a lone green-winged teal.  I got it in the scope and instead found this.

The light was starting to fad and these phone scoped photos aren't the clearest, but I believe this is likely the black-bellied plover found here two days ago by Jarmo Jalava.  It was a first for me and a great find for my evening at the lagoons.

I spent last weekend birding the farm, but didn't turn up anything particularly unusual, except for a butterfly that I wasn't expecting this time of year.

Eastern Comma

Hidden Heron

It sounds like southern Ontario is expecting a decent rainstorm overnight and into tomorrow so I'm glad I got some birding in tonight before it hits.