Jean Iron called me on Saturday (18 July) evening by satellite phone
from Longridge Point on southern James Bay. She is with a crew of six
headed by Mark Peck of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) surveying
migrating shorebirds, particularly Red Knots of the subspecies rufa,
which is listed as endangered in Canada. Rufa has declined 70% during
the last 15 years. Longridge was chosen as the ROM's survey site
because significant numbers of Red Knots have been recorded there in
the past. The extensive tidal flats and wide coastal marshes of
southern James Bay provide abundant wetland habitats making it one of
the most important shorebird staging areas in North America. Its
importance has been compared to the upper Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick.

SHOREBIRDS: no migrant juvenile shorebirds recorded as of 18 July.
Black-bellied Plover: 3 adults on 17 July and 2 on 18th.

Semipalmated Plover: 4 adults on 17 July.

Killdeer: 1 on 18 July.

Spotted Sandpiper: 1 on 17 July.

Solitary Sandpiper: 3 adults on 17 and 1 on 18th

Greater Yellowlegs: 222 adults on 17 and 118 on 18th.

Lesser Yellowlegs: 459 adults on 17 July and 306 on 18th.

Whimbrel: 15 adults on 17 July and 11 on 18th.

Hudsonian Godwit: 102 adults on 17 July and 104 on 18th.

Marbled Godwit: 1 adult on 17 July. An isolated population of about
1500 Marbled Godwits breeds in James Bay in wide coastal marshes,
which are very prairie-like.

Ruddy Turnstone: 10 adults on 17 July and 12 on 18th.

Red Knot: 200 adults of 17 July and 157 on 18th. Knots are in the
beginning stages of prealternate molt. 25 colour marked knots were
observed including birds banded in Delaware Bay, Florida, Argentina and Chile.

Sanderling: 15 adults on 17 July and 61 on 18th.

Semipalmated Sandpiper: 185 adults on 17 July and 207 on 18th.
Numbers should increase soon.

Least Sandpiper: 111 adults on 17 July and 31 on 18th.

White-rumped Sandpiper: 1 molting adult on 17 July and 1 on 18th.
Numbers should increase soon.

Pectoral Sandpiper: 6 adults on 17 July and 17 on 18th. This species
does not molt during fall migration.

Dunlin: 1 adult on 17 July and 3 on 18th.

Curlew Sandpiper: An adult male found by Doug McRae. It is bright
individual beginning prealternate molt.

Short-billed Dowitcher: 6 adults on 17 July and 3 on 18th. Most were
of the nominate subspecies griseus, which nests mainly in northern
Quebec, but some breed west to James Bay.

Wilson's Snipe: 4 on 17 July and 2 on 18th.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS
Pacific Loon: 1 adult on 18 July found by Mark Peck.

Black Guillemot: 1 adult on 18 July found by Mark Peck.

Merlin: 2 around camp.

Yellow Rail: many "clicking" in coastal sedge marsh.

Gray Jay: 1 adult with 2 blackish juveniles in spruce forest south of
camp. Juvenile Gray Jays differ so much from adults that they were
once thought to be a separate species. Juveniles molt into adult-like
plumage mainly in August.

Le Conte's Sparrow: fairly common. This sparrow also breeds at many
inland areas across northern Ontario.

Nelson's Sparrow: common in extensive coastal grass/sedge wetlands.
The breeding subspecies alterus is often called the James Bay
Sparrow. It is the more frequent of the two subspecies (alterus and
nominate nelsoni) seen in migration in southern Ontario.

White-winged Crossbill: 156, these birds are on the move looking for
maturing cone crops and probably will nest in late summer in northern
Ontario if they find abundant spruce crops.

Map link shows considerable ice in James and Hudson Bays.
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/ims_gif/DATA/cursnow_usa.gif

Reference: Wilson, N.C. and D. McRae. 1993. Seasonal and Geographical
Distribution of Birds for Selected Sites in Ontario's Hudson Bay
Lowland. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. 145 pages.

Jean will call again in a few days and I'll post an update.

Ron Pittaway
Minden and Toronto
Ontario, Canada