It is going to be a busy weekend and not because of birding. Even as I sat to plan my weekend of birding "more important things" kept popping in and sapping up the time I had planned for birding. No worries though, we will overcome, just as I did today, the first day of the Global Bird Weekend, I used any available time. It being a working day, I did my birding before and after work. A brief stop at Pile Bay, St. Michael before work got the weekend started with six species. After work, I made four stops along the south coast. The first was at Long Beach, Christ Church where shorebirds were busily feeding among the Sargassum Seaweed. Ruddy Turnstones (Arenaria interpres)(50)were the dominant species, in terms of numbers, on the beach.
148 Ruddy Turnstones were seen on day 1 of Global Bird Weekend
Other shorebirds seen were Sanderlings (Calidris alba) and surprisingly a juvenile American Golden-Plover (Pluvialis Dominica). The Ruddy Turnstones trend continued at the neighboring Inch Marlow with a count of 45, with 35 Semipalmated Plovers (Charadrius semipalmatus). I was surprised by a Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola) still showing signs of breeding plumage I was not expecting to see it at the beach. Black-bellied Plovers were also at Chancery Lane marsh along with noisy Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca), and a few Whimbrels (Numenius phaeopus) among other birds. My final stop was at Oistin's Fish Market, which is also in the parish of Christ Church. Would you believe a significant number of Ruddy Turnstones were also there? Fifty - three of them were sitting on various boats in the bay.
At the end of Day one of the Global Bird Weekend, the checklist stands at 30 species - see the full checklist here.
Tomorrow is the October Big Day, My adjusted plan is to stop at any wetland or birding hot spots I can reach as I journey throughout the day.
New Species for the Day: 30
Yearbirds for the Day:0
Total Species for Global Bird Weekend: 30
Total Yearbirds Global Bird Weekend:0
See Day 1 Trip report here
Click here for the full checklist
Click here to see the images for the weekend
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