What do you think when I say "Hamilton shorebirding"

If you say "OH GOD - PLEASE NO - there are NO shorebird "hotspots" in Hamilton, please don't make me!"

- then you're one smart cookie...


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I typically avoid Hamilton shorebirding like the plague... Windemere Basin has become my 2nd least favourite birding spot ever,  outside of the tip of Long Point... Although I guess that's an exaggeration - windemere isn't that bad, I just don't like it...

SO - when an odd tern flew past my balcony at GREAT distance, I set forth into the "bay" part of Hamilton to try and relocate it. I didn't find it, but do you know what I did find? SHOREBIRDS!!!


Northshore Islands -

Killdeer, Semi Sands (15?) Least Sands (8?) - not much, but a fun spot. 2 Common Terns were here as well...

Tollgate Ponds !!!! -


2 BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS - woot! (on the farrr side, only reason I saw them was because they flushed)
1 WILLET (ongoing rare)
2 Baird's Sandpipers
2 Ruddy Turnstone
1 Sanderling
1 Lesser Yellowlegs
x Least Sand's
x Semi-sands
x Killdeer


Not too shabby at all eh? Onwards! -

Windemere -

1 Black-bellied Plover
10+ Greater Yellowlegs

RAIN!!! Oh god it's pouring! Run! Run for your lives!!!!!

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Ok, so this isn't a great post for birding highlights - but I was pretty surprised. Windemere had a lot of birds, but I got soaked and decided to leave without properly scanning. Recent finds (like GLOSSYness) have already proven this place is a hotspot for rares - although the viewing is pretty awful...

Beyond that, I didn't even checkout the redhill pond! Which is another place of former awfulness - due to fearing for ones life as you'd blindly pull out into oncoming on-ramp traffic.. Is it any better now? Can I safely view from somewhere?

Hard to believe, I know, but with a little more effort, I could have pulled 15 shorebird species from a very small area (never mind cootes) - in HAMILTON!

It was pretty exciting... Not sure if/when I'll be around to look again, but I just might...

Where can ya see sludge Willet? Only in Hamilton! Come to Hamilton! We've got sludge Willet! Forget Long Point. Hamilton!!! Hamilton, Hamilton Hamilton...