Spotted Sandpipers by the Humber: July 6, 2022

The Spotted Sandpiper runs along river’s edge, stopping to teeter up and down every few steps, and whistling as if calling your dog “wheet, wheet, wheet”.

This morning we saw several adults:

Spotted Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper

and some juveniles. Juveniles do not have spots and have a “fluffy” appearance plus they have a white line over the eye and a dusky smudge enclosing a white wedge near the shoulder.

Spotted Sandpiper (juvenile)
Spotted Sandpiper (juvenile)
Spotted Sandpiper (juvenile)
Spotted Sandpiper (juvenile)
Spotted Sandpiper (juvenile)
Spotted Sandpiper (juvenile)
Spotted Sandpiper (juvenile)
Spotted Sandpiper (juvenile)
Spotted Sandpiper (juvenile)

Other birds:

Red-tailed Hawk
bathing Red-winged Blackbird (female)
Canada Geese (mostly juvenile)
Red-winged Blackbird (male)
American Black Duck
moulting male Mallard
Killdeer
Red-tailed Hawk
American Robin (juvenile)
moulting male Mallard
Red-winged Blackbird (female)
Killdeer
American Robin (juvenile)
Killdeer

Humber River:

Some botany:

Giant Ragweed (Ambrosia trifida)
Queen Anne’s-lace (Daucus carota)
Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis)
St. John’s-wort (Hypericum perforatum)
Swamp Candles (Lysimachia terrestris)
Three Square Sedge
Nipplewort (Lapsana communis)
Hackberry Leaf Galls
Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
Wild Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa)
Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
Swamp Candles (Lysimachia terrestris)
Three Square Sedge

Today’s group:

NATURE POETRY

Small summer insects chirp amid the blades
That rattle with a sharp metallic sound,
And clover, like a group of modest maids,
Empurples yonder patch of meadow ground.    – James Berry Bensel (1856–86)

Miles Hearn

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