Two of the last three years there have been organized “pelagic” boat trips on Lake Champlain with key targets including Jaegers, Kittiwake, Sabine’s Gull, and the like. I need all those birds for my VT (and NY) state lists so I’ve signed up for each trip when it has been scheduled. This year a trip was scheduled for mid-September, the typical peak time for many of these species on Lake Champlain. Within an hour I had registered and sent in my check.
Since I don’t get to northwest VT very
often, I planned to use the boat trip as an excuse to do some additional
birding in the area. As the trip neared
I watched eBird and the listserve for potential targets, and salivated over a
report of a Buff-breasted Sandpiper about a week before the trip. The bird was found at the mouth of Dead Creek
in Highgate in the far northwestern tip of VT, but was only reported one
day. Then again there were no subsequent
negative reports, so I tried to be optimistic that a stop there a week later
could be fruitful. Plus an Orange-crowned
Warbler was reported at Whitney Creek – one of the best spots in all of VT for
that species and also for Connecticut Warbler.
So although the Orange-crown would certainly be long gone by the time I
got there, maybe it could be replaced by another one.
With no other targets reported in VT, and
the Buffie spot being in far northern VT just 3 miles from the Canadian border,
I decided to check Quebec reports to see if there might be some targets there
as well. I was pretty happy with my existing
Quebec list of 190. So much so that when
leaving Quebec after my last birding trip there I thought that my Quebec
birding days were behind me. But I’m
glad I set up an eBird Quebec Needs Alert prior to this trip, because there
were numerous shorebirds I needed that were reported from Baie Missisquoi just
a short distance north of the US border, and less than 6 miles from Highgate as
the sandpiper flies. Apparently the region-wide
drought had caused the lake level to drop enough to cause mudflats to form at
the north end of the bay, attracting a diverse group shorebirds. In the last couple days before my trip
birders had spotted 10 species I needed for my list - 8 species of shorebirds,
Caspian Tern, and Peregrine Falcon. Plus
there were a couple other targets like Solitary Sandpiper and Golden Plover
reported recently a short distance to the north. More than enough targets to justify yet
another trip across the border into Quebec.
But just as I was getting excited about
some Quebec province birding and a couple possible long shots in VT, I got an
e-mail saying the boat trip was cancelled.
Although I was tempted to cancel my trip as well, I decided to keep the
rest of my plans, and replace the boat trip with a lake watch from shore. So my itinerary would begin with a stop at Highgate
around midday of Day 1, followed by an afternoon in Quebec. I would start Day 2 at dawn doing a lake
watch from Charlotte Town Beach, and then make a stop at Whitney Creek to try
for Orange-crowns and Connecticuts on the way home.
Day 1
Although I left the house a bit before 8 I
didn’t make it to Highgate until close to noon.
Scoping the mudflats from Shipyard Road is quite a challenge as the
flats are a ¼ to ½ mile away, complicated that day by quite a bit of heat
shimmer. I scanned the habitat for
nearly an hour hoping against hope to find the Buff-breasted, but to no
avail. Though I did have some other
pretty good shorebirds there– 4 Black-bellied Plovers, a Sanderling, and 2
Short-billed Dowitchers.
I left at 1, and within 15 minutes I had
passed through the border crossing and had made my way to Baie Missisquoi. I wasn’t quite sure where to go to bird
there, but soon realized I needed to make my way into a “campground” consisting
of a number of mobile homes. I checked
in with the host of the park who spoke just barely enough English to explain
where to park. After a short walk I was
at the edge of the extensive mudflats, only to see several people kiteboarding
(flying kites connected to surfboards) right at the edge of the flats. I did a quick look around and didn’t see any
shorebirds at all. Had the kiteboarders scared
off all the shorebirds? I then noticed a
couple birders a short distance away and asked them for updates. They said the numbers of birds had been way
down from yesterday, though earlier there were at least a few around, including
both Dowitchers, Stilt Sandpipers, and Red-necked Phalaropes. But a Peregrine had come through and flushed
all the birds away. My heart sank –
although the shorebirds had been great there for more than a week, they must
have known I was coming and had moved on just in time for my trip.
I then looked over to the east and saw 3
other birders with scopes walking toward us.
And with a quick binoc scan in that direction I noticed a distant group
of Yellowlegs feeding in the shallow water.
So I started walking in that direction with the first 2 birders I talked
with. As we were heading in that
direction a flock of about 30 shorebirds flew by looking for a place to
land. Even without binocs I picked out
several Sanderlings in the flock (Quebec bird #1) as they wheeled past. They landed right in front of us, and the
small flock included 11 Sanderlings, and 6 White-rumped Sandpipers (#2) – both
numbers were higher than reported in previous days. Then I noticed a lone Red-necked Phalarope
spinning in the shallows right next to them (#3). Small numbers, but great to pick up 3 new
birds nonetheless.
We then continued to walk toward the
Yellowlegs flock to the east, and ran into another small flock of shorebirds which
included 2 more Sanderlings, 8 more White-rumps, and another Red-necked Phalarope,
along with our first Pectoral. Then up
ahead we spotted a flock of peeps on the rocky shoreline farther to the
east. Just as we were starting to look through
that flock a Peregrine flew by low over the water (#4), flushing shorebirds
from all around us. A number of small
peeps flew right past us, including one larger one that turned out to be a
Baird’s Sandpiper (#5). Baird’s was also
new for my Canada list - #357. Although
I was initially unhappy to have the Peregrine flush the shorebirds, it was new
for my list, plus it flushed another new species that we hadn’t spotted yet. So not a bad thing afterall.
We looked back to the rocky shoreline where
the peep flock had been and all those birds had hunkered down instead of flying
when the Peregrine passed by. Slowly
they started to perk up and walk around again, and we counted 40 Leasts and
Semi Sands, along with a Pectoral. At
that point, with all those small peeps around, I wondered why no one had
reported a Western Sandpiper yet from this location. And just then I spotted a small peep in the
rocks with a drooping bill. Only the
head was visible (the rest of the bird was hidden by a rock) so I didn’t want
to jump to any conclusions yet. With a
few more steps I got a different angle on the bird, seeing dark legs, and rusty
scapulars on an otherwise brownish mantle – a Western Sandpiper (#6). After I got the other birders on this bird,
we all continued to walk toward the east and amazingly all these peeps,
including the Western, walked within 10 feet of us.
Finally we were nearing the Yellowlegs
flock and I set up my scope to scan through the birds. One of the first birds I looked at had a much
longer bill with a bit of a droop at the end.
With a bit of study the bird turned out to be the Long-billed Dowitcher
reported earlier. And the flock included
3 Stilt Sandpipers as well. Though the
Dowitcher and Stilts were rarities for Quebec, I had seen both of them a couple
years earlier at Sainte-Martine, Quebec.
(I would have been happier if the Dowitcher had been the much more
common Short-billed which I still need for my Quebec list.)
As we returned to the cars I kept my eyes
open for a Caspian Tern that might pass by.
And I kept watching for more little groups of shorebirds. But I struck out on both. Although both the total number of shorebirds,
and number of species, were way down from reports earlier in the week, and even
just the previous day, I was still happy to have seen 13 shorebird species at
this location, including several rarities. And of course it was great to add 6 new birds
to my Quebec list – which is now at 196.
I spent the next couple hours making stops
at other parts of the bay, and a couple places to the north, and only added
Killdeer as my 14th shorebird species that day in Quebec. And including the Black-bellied Plovers and
Short-billed Dowitchers I had earlier in VT (wish I could have seen them in
Quebec - I need both of them for my Quebec list!) that gave me 16 shorebirds
for the day. Very nice totals for these
inland locations.
Day 2
I started the day at first light at
Charlotte Town Beach, the recommended location from which to do a lake watch in
VT. Winds had been light out of the
northwest the night before, but were dead calm now. Not the best conditions to see pelagic birds
in VT, since your best chances of seeing them are when there is a stiff breeze
from the north or northwest. But at
least there weren’t winds from the south.
As the sun rose I got these spectacular views of the morning clouds and
the NY mountains in the background.
If only the birds were as spectacular. I spent about 2 hours at the lake, and only
spotted a few migrant flocks of Cormorants, a flock of Mallards, and 2 single
Caspian Terns passing by. (Where were
those Caspians when I needed them in Quebec?)
Chances are even if the boat had gone out that morning we probably
wouldn’t have seen much more. Will I
ever be able to time one of my fall trips to Lake Champlain to coincide with a
good day of migration? So with the
lakewatch being so slow, I called it quits early at about 8 AM to head to
Whitney Creek. It was still early enough
in the morning that maybe I could run into a few migrants there, not to mention
my key targets - Orange-crowned and Connecticut Warblers.
When I arrived at Whitney Creek another
birder was just coming out of the trail.
I asked him how he did – he said it was a bit slow, but 15 minutes
earlier he had had a brief glimpse of an Orange-crowned Warbler. I spent the next 2 hours scouring the area
with no luck. If only I had left
Charlotte a few minutes earlier. Ugh…
But there was an even bigger disappointment
to come… That evening after getting back
home I opened my most recent Quebec Needs Alert and saw that there were numerous
reports of a Common Ringed Plover that day.
I figured they must have come from far northern Quebec, until I opened
one of the reports and found that the bird was at Baie Missisquoi. Not only had I birded this same spot the previous
day, but the Plover had spent the entire day there no more than an hour’s drive
north of where I birded most unsuccessfully that day in VT. It would have been a life bird! Then I started to wonder if the Ringed Plover
was present the day I was there, but just overlooked. But since most all of the birds I saw were
not found there the next day when the Plover was spotted, I imagine the bird
was just a 1-day wonder.
So although I’m happy to have added 6 birds
to my Quebec province list, with a slightly different “alignment of the stars” I
not only could have added a bird to my VT list but a life bird as well.
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