Birders,

Many of you will be interested in the attached message, which is forwarded
with permission from the BCINTBIRD group. Salmon Arm is located on
Shuswap Lake, just beyond the north end of Okanagan Lake (north of
Vernon and east of Kamloops). It has long been known as one of the main
shorebird fall staging areas in the interior of BC. However, the numbers
quoted below are exceptional even for Salmon Arm, especially the counts
of Semipalmated, Baird's, and Pectoral Sandpipers.

In another count done on August 13, Don Cecile estimated 1200
Semipalmated, 200 Baird's, and 100 Stilt Sandpipers-- the last being
a provincial high count for BC. Finally, in another count today, the
number of Stilt Sandpipers rose to 129 (!!).

Jack Bowling, our resident meteorologist among BC birders, noted that
abnormal wind patterns may have caused some of these usual Prairie
migrants to fly father west than usual. Whatever the reason, some of these
numbers are staggering.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Cecile" <dcecile at telus.net>
To: <bcintbird at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 5:03 PM
Subject: [bcintbird] Salmon Arm shoreline for Friday 12 Aug


Looks like another fantastic shorebird season is upon us!

Today I had my earliest-ever opportunity to visit Salmon Arm for shorebirds.
In the past I have arrived during the last week of August. Upon arrival at
the foot of Narcisse Rd., it was obvious that a record was about to be
broken. I had estimated there were 700 peeps along the shoreline. Baird's
Sandpipers are the only peeps that have ever come even close to those
numbers (in my experience) but it is too early for the peak Baird's
movement.... thus it must be some combination of Westerns and Semis that
account for those numbers. In all there were 14 species of shorebirds that
were conservatively counted:


American White Pelican 2 (there were 3 birds summering here, what appears
to be the corpse of the 3rd bird was along the shoreline in the westernmost
part of the bay)
Canada Goose (didn't count them but one bird had a brown neck stocking
instead of black)
Semipalmated Plover 41 (this is by far the largest number I have ever seen
there)
Killdeer 400
Greater Yellowlegs 18 (there must be a lot more of these around, I did not
do a good job of counting them)
Lesser Yellowlegs 70 (again, not a very precise count)
Spotted Sandpiper 18 (includes some locally-fledged birds)
Semipalmated Sandpiper 820 (a whopping total! my previous high count
consists of a mere 45 birds!. Obviously, I have always arrived after the
peak of the semi migration and, it appears that this location may well be a
very important stopover location for southbound juv semis! As far as I
know, this is the highest number ever recorded in the province.
Western Sandpiper 4
Least Sandpiper 100
Baird's Sandpiper 164
Pectoral Sandpiper 106 (this is very early for such high numbers)
Stilt Sandpiper 22 juvs
Long-billed Dowitcher 8 ads.
Wilson's Snipe 10
Red-necked Phalarope 25
Franklin's Gull 4 juvs
Bonaparte's Gull 3 juvs

There will be more to come....

Cheers,
Don Cecile