Birders,

Yesterday, May 1, I birded Blaine Marine Park for about an hour in
mid-morning, mainly looking for shorebirds. The tide was high but rapidly
dropping. The wind was strong from the NW (about 25 mph),
necessitating the use of my car window mount so that I could hold
my scope steady. Semiahmoo Bay was full of whitecaps, making it
hard to see many birds offshore, but there were lots of birds on the
shoreline and in the somewhat protected waters of Drayton Harbor.

The shorebird tally was 7 species, as follows:

Black-bellied Plover 1
Killdeer 1
Semipalmated Plover 4 (near the boat launch, Drayton Hbr side)
Whimbrel 16 (mudflats S of boat launch)
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Western Sandpiper 1000
Dunlin 300

The Westerns and Dunlin were actively feeding along the Semiahmoo
Bay shoreline.

Other birds of interest:

Caspian Tern 18 (14 of these on the concrete breakwater
around the Semiahmoo
Resort marina)
Common Loon 8
Western Grebe 25
Red-necked Grebe 2
Double-c. Cormorant 80

The cormorant nesting colony on the rock breakwater near the
crab-fishing pier was in full swing again, with some birds sitting
on nests. (There is also a sizable gull colony on the breakwater.)

Not bad for a short visit in less than ideal weather conditions.

I hope to make at least a couple more visits before the shorebird
migration winds down for the spring.

Good luck and good birding,

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