A couple weeks ago I took another trip out to Iona Island in search of the many migratory shorebirds that had been reported. I spent a lovely afternoon and evening birding around the island seeing 50 species over my five and a half hours of birding. I was able to add six species to my year list. I parked south of the outer ponds where I saw one of the resident Osprey, the previously reported Ruddy Duck, and a number of Cliff Swallows mixed in with the Tree Swallows. I then headed to inner ponds but I was a bit disappointed by the number of shorebirds compared with some previous reports. I was able to pick out a single Semipalmated Sandpiper mixed in with a small group of Western Sandpipers. As you can see from my photos there were also a good variety of ducks and swallows in and around the ponds.

After leaving the ponds I walked north through the forest towards the river. While I didn’t catch the peak of the migration I did see large numbers of Wilson’s Warblers in the forest. I followed the river downstream to the north outer pond, where I saw my first Yellow-headed Blackbird of the year. I then continued down the north jetty where I saw a Northern River Otter and my first Spotted Sandpiper of the year. On the north shore of the river there was a large vocal mixed flock of Caspian Terns, Mew Gulls, and Glaucous-winged Gulls. As I headed back towards the beach, I was able to get some good shots of the Ospreys as they returned to their nests on the north shore of the river. As I was running out of daylight and I was hoping to see the Parasitic Jaegers that had been reported I cut across the intertidal area of the beach to the South Jetty. While I didn’t see the Jaegers I got some great photos of the sunset as I walked back to the car. All in all a great outing. For a full list of my sightings see he KMZ file below.