Here We Go Again

The Grand River is quite low at the moment, so Riverside Park here in Guelph has some lovely mud flats which seem to be attracting shorebirds. I managed a short visit out there this morning to see who was around.


I really wanted one of these to be a Yellowlegs, but I'm pretty sure all four that I saw were Solitary Sandpipers. I honestly can't tell whether the legs are pure yellow or greenish-yellow, but they all had a really prominent white eye-ring, and that dark leading edge at the front of the wing.


Small peeps, which I think are all Least Sandpipers. They seem pretty dark overall, even on the throat, mostly with a cleanly-delineated line between dark breast and white belly (reminiscent of a Pectoral Sandpiper, really, though these are way too small for that). Noticeably smaller than the Semipalmated Plovers that they were with.


Northern Rough-winged Swallows were flying over the water, and hanging around the concrete wing-walls near the bridge. Wonder if they will nest there?


These pigeons caught my interest, because those are definitely not the average coloration. Wonder if they're escapees from someone's coop?


And finally, there's one late Bufflehead lady still hanging around. Silly bird, don't you know you're supposed to have moved on by now?