Last night I called up Larry and asked if he was interested in joining me for Opening Day. Of course, its too late for Opening Day of the baseball season, so this was an invitation to Opening Day of our Sedge Island canoeing season. Last year we canoed/birded there every week or two starting in late July, continuing to late September, finding good birds on nearly every trip. We even went out there last November hoping for some late rarity. (Hey, we never claimed that we were sane!) This morning we went out on a calm, warm, and slightly overcast day (= perfect conditions) to see what birds we could find in this wonderful location. The tides there, which are surprisingly difficult to predict, were with us, as we arrived at nearly low tide which exposed the extensive sandflats, and the rising tide brought us back to the launch site.
The birds were cooperative too. Larry was particularly interested in finding his FOS Royal Tern (which I hadn’t seen yet either), and within 5 minutes were were watching 4 Royal Terns on the sandflats. It was already a successful trip.
As were were getting ready to leave that area to head toward the inlet, a large bird flew in behind us: Marbled Godwit! We’ve had good luck with Godwits in the Sedge Islands, but I wasn’t really expecting one this early in the season. One of the great pleasures of birding from the canoe is that the birds are relatively tolerant to people. No scopes were needed to get great close looks at this delightful bird with its oversized upswept bill feeding in the shallows.
As we started padding on, 5 more large birds flew in that I initially thought were Godwits, but instead they turned out to be Whimbrels. I wasn’t disappointed though, since seeing six Godwits would have been greedy, and Whimbrels are great to see any time of year. We were doing great with the large shorebirds, also finding multiple American Oystercatchers, including some juvenile birds. Good birds continued throughout the trip, including several Tricolored Herons, ~100 Glossy Ibis, 4 Brown Pelicans, and finishing off with a pair of handsome Black Scoters. I’d classify it as an Opening Day victory.