Subject: A WAVE OF SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS
Date: Aug 7 14:03:11 2002
From: Wayne C. Weber - contopus at shaw.ca


Birders,

It looks like a major wave of SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS has been passing
through southern B.C. in the last few days. On Sunday (August 4), I
observed 12 Semis at Guichon Flats, on Highway 5A between Kamloops and
Merritt, with about 8 LEAST SANDPIPERS and other shorebirds. Try as I
might, I could not turn any of the Semis into Western Sandpipers. I
was therefore quite pleased to note that Chris Charlesworth had 70
Semis (and no Westerns) at Robert Lake, Kelowna, on August 6, plus 5
on Gordon Road, and 15 Semis at Robert Lake on August 5.

The Vancouver area is also experiencing good numbers of Semi
Sandpipers (e.g. 22 at Iona Island on August 1, out of a total of less
than 230 peeps), and there have been a number of reports of Semis
(usually only 1 to 3 at a time) to the south of us in Washington and
Oregon, where Semis are usually much scarcer than in B.C.

As an aside, I'm pleased to note that the variety and number of
shorebirds at Guichon Flats on the weekend was almost equal to that at
Robert Lake, the unofficial Okanagan hotspot. With 11 species of
shorebirds at Guichon Flats on August 4, plus a SOLITARY SANDPIPER the
day before, things are definitely popping.

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
contopus at shaw.ca