Day I went looking for the Golden Plover, took a bit, found it in the green field to the east of the playa. This is the field that if you use the road as a keyboard looks a lot like a Steinway Grand Piano in shape. The plover was ducking (pun intended) up and down in those deep furrows. The Killdeer were scattered all over instead of being concentrated on the muddy part of the harvested cornfield across the road from the playa as others had noted at the time. I made note of this in my ible posting of that day. Check out that piano shaped green field. There may be a surprise or two.
It is interesting to see how things change during the day. It was entirely possible the Golden-plovers were mixed in with the Dowitchers when I was there. They were on the far side of the water and all I was able to count were “large sized shorebirds with long bills”. I easily could have missed the Golden-plovers – not that they have long bills, and they are similar sized, though smaller than the Dowitchers, but that I didn’t take my time to carefully examine each “dot in the distance.” When I didn’t seem them up close in the mud I scanned all the surrounding fields a couple of time hoping they were out there.
Time of day seems to make a difference at Dry Lakes. Went out this afternoon (10/15) and got lots of dowitchers, least sandpipers, a couple of western sandpipers, the dunlin, and two golden plovers. Lots of pipits on the road edge. Ducks were few, geese absent, and many gulls present, tho not as many as have been there (only a couple hundred instead of over 1000).
Other days, there have been a higher diversity of ducks and the occasional snow goose or greater white-fronted goose, a phalarope or two, the odd black-necked stilt or avocet, stilt sandpipers, and so on. Every day is different. Been fascinating to see the changes.
Around :5:p.m.i approached dry lake from the east an saw what i thought was several dowitchers paused the drove toward other birders Louisa & pat McGrane they said golden plovers were way out said dunlins mixed in with dows photos then along came the plovers close in with great lighting 1 photo had least peep ,– Dublin & plover totally awesomist1 went to lower dam hoping to see white fronts no luck .but did see all whites plus this lion oh oh all whites were 8 snow geese what a great day birding rocks
After yesterday afternoon’s (Wed/Oct 14) amazing reports I decided to head out to Dry Lakes this morning. I arrived about 9:30AM. There was one other birder there and it was nice to meet Junice Neubauer. From my first glance around I could tell the birds were way different than the previous afternoon. Could it be the cold weather pushed everything out and the new arrivals took advantage of the NW wind and just kept going? No Black-bellied or Golden-Plovers. Three Kildeer instead of 30. The 2 Dunlin were still there (thanks Junice for telling me you saw them – when I reviewed my photos when I got home the mystery birds turned out to be Dunlin.) The Long-billed Dowitchers were still there and in the same numbers. No Stilt Sandpipers, no Baird’s (though Junice said she saw some), no Yellowlegs and no Phalaropes. It was amazing how different it was. There were still quite a few pipits around though my estimate was 1/3 to ½ what were there the previous afternoon. And, the morning highlight was getting some great photos of them.
Still a good trip. Dry Lakes seems to be the shorebird place to be in the Treasure Valley this year. Blacks Creek Reservoir is definitely having an off year. I do not know why and would be interested in other’s thoughts. I know if had a lot more water last year, but even now, the water there is much larger than Dry Lakes.
After Jason’s posting that there were 3 BLJA’s on Plantation Island, I’ve been totally tuned in to the sounds there. Plus, some folks have shown up to see the little blighters. So today was no surprise when I found RL and some photographers on the island, and they had photos of my nemesis.
Fortunately, once I came back from my Remington St. rounds, an accommodating Blue Jay landed close enough to see without binos. Then I stood where the dirt path leads off from the paved path, and I was rewarded with multiple views of at least 2 Blue Jays. The island was rather birdy, with a large flock of Cedar Waxwings, DE Juncos, and RC Kinglets. But the Blue Jays were the big show for me. I think the term is “soul satisfying views.” (And my soul needs a little satisfying these days.)
