On Saturday August 17th volunteers from the Manitoba IBA Program descended on Delta Marsh IBA for a shorebird blitz. The IBA split into 5 main sections, and groups covered as much of the area as possible during a morning of birding.

In Group A we had Cal and Gord. They covered the west side of the diversion all the way to Lynch’s Point. The most significant count of birds for this group was of 5000 Franklin’s Gulls heading north early in the morning. They had good numbers of Mallard, an estimated 800 primarily along the lakeshore off of Cram and Deep Creeks. The total of 17 species of shorebird was impressive, including 320 Least Sandpiper, 239 Semipalmated Sandpiper and 134 Lesser Yellowlegs. A Prairie Falcon was a significant bonus.

Garry, Deanna and Rudolf took on Group B, an area from the east of the diversion to Delta Beach. They also had a large number of Franklin’s Gulls heading north, 3550 in total. 146 Forster’s Tern were also accounted for. 40 Western Grebes seemed low, something that they and other groups commented on afterwards. There were 11 species of shorebird in total including 170 Least Sandpiper.

Group C consisted of Katharine, Pat, Wally and Chris. They covered an area from Delta Beach to St Ambroise. They counted an impressive 329 Purple Martins during their travels in this area and 24 Red-tailed Hawks. They found 8 species of shorebird. The total number of birds in this area was 1606.

Group D was split in two. On the road we had Jo, Betsy and Rob. Early morning they counted 600 Double-crested Cormorants from St Ambroise Beach Provincial Park. They also came across an adult and 14 full grown Gray Partridge chicks and 100 Bank Swallows, in the beach area. Later on in the morning they came across another 250 Double-crested Cormorant and 100 American White Pelican around 83 and 84N and a further 100 American White Pelican around St Marks. There was also a Krider’s red-tailed Hawk and a family of Red-headed Woodpecker along Highway 430.

The other part of this group was our beach team, heading from St Ambroise through to Clandeboye Bay. Gull numbers were pretty good in this area, 280 Franklin’s and 480 Ring-bills counted. There were 13 species of shorebird, the most significant numbers were of Semipalmated Sandpiper (385) and Least (82). Walking along the beach ridge, one might expect some good numbers of migrating warblers. On this occasion however, there was only a single Northern Waterthrush to join the Yellow Warblers and Common Yellowthroats. They headed back along the beach and across to the end of PR430. At this point they counted 2095 Double-crested Cormorant, had 11 species of shorebird and an impressive number of gulls.

After lunch this group headed to the PR227 dump locating 3 California Gull among the 700 Ring-bills and 100 Herring Gulls.

Finally, Tim and Amanda walked a large portion of Twin Lake Beach. They only detected 8 species of shorebird including 42 Least Sandpiper, although frustratingly, they had to turn back with larger flocks taking flight on the horizon. There were 177 Bonaparte’s Gull in this area, by far the largest total of this species all day.

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In total we detected 123 species and counted 26,352 individuals. The most abundant species were Canada Goose (1,071), Mallard (1,412), Franklin’s Gull (9,409), Ring-billed Gull (2,153) and Double-crested Cormorant (3,683). The total number of Purple Martin seems notable (498).

19 species of shorebird were recorded during the morning. The most abundant species was Least Sandpiper (764) followed by Semipalmated Sandpiper (668), Lesser Yellowlegs (221) and Greater Yellowlegs (129).

Here are the totals from the morning. Thank you to all our volunteers for an enjoyable morning in a great IBA.

Species Name	Species Count	Sample Size
Canada Goose	1,071	9
Wood Duck	28	8
Blue-winged Teal	110	8
Northern Shoveler	48	4
Gadwall	62	4
American Wigeon	37	2
Mallard	1,412	12
Green-winged Teal	59	4
Canvasback	6	2
Redhead	5	2
Bufflehead	4	1
Common Goldeneye	1	1
Hooded Merganser	19	5
Common Merganser	2	1
Ruddy Duck	3	1
duck sp.	72	3
Gray Partridge	15	1
Pied-billed Grebe	1	1
Western Grebe	53	6
Rock Pigeon	8	3
Mourning Dove	89	16
Ruby-throated Hummingbird	17	8
American Coot	2	1
Sandhill Crane	10	1
American Avocet	12	1
Semipalmated Plover	120	4
Killdeer	88	8
Marbled Godwit	75	6
Stilt Sandpiper	55	2
Sanderling	11	3
Baird’s Sandpiper	31	5
Least Sandpiper	764	10
White-rumped Sandpiper	19	2
Pectoral Sandpiper	55	5
Semipalmated Sandpiper	668	8
peep sp.	30	1
Short-billed Dowitcher	3	1
Wilson’s Snipe	2	2
Red-necked Phalarope	49	1
Spotted Sandpiper	22	6
Solitary Sandpiper	3	2
Greater Yellowlegs	129	12
Willet	1	1
Lesser Yellowlegs	271	10
shorebird sp.	65	2
Bonaparte’s Gull	185	4
Franklin’s Gull	9,409	10
Ring-billed Gull	2,153	15
California Gull	3	1
Herring Gull	173	8
Caspian Tern	55	6
Black Tern	1	1
Common Tern	103	4
Forster’s Tern	218	9
Double-crested Cormorant	3,683	12
American White Pelican	353	10
American Bittern	4	3
Great Blue Heron	11	5
Great Egret	9	2
Turkey Vulture	13	3
Northern Harrier	37	17
Bald Eagle	32	14
Swainson’s Hawk	5	3
Red-tailed Hawk	62	17
Belted Kingfisher	2	2
Red-headed Woodpecker	3	1
Downy Woodpecker	2	2
Hairy Woodpecker	2	1
Northern Flicker	5	4
American Kestrel	9	6
Merlin	13	10
Peregrine Falcon	1	1
Prairie Falcon	1	1
Eastern Wood-Pewee	7	4
Least Flycatcher	13	4
Eastern Phoebe	3	3
Western Kingbird	6	3
Eastern Kingbird	144	21
Warbling Vireo	3	2
Red-eyed Vireo	5	4
Blue Jay	1	1
American Crow	2	1
Common Raven	60	10
Purple Martin	498	7
Tree Swallow	283	10
Bank Swallow	116	5
Barn Swallow	360	19
Cliff Swallow	2	1
House Wren	8	5
Sedge Wren	3	2
Marsh Wren	12	3
European Starling	131	6
Gray Catbird	14	8
Eastern Bluebird	1	1
American Robin	58	11
Cedar Waxwing	45	6
House Sparrow	12	1
Pine Siskin	3	2
American Goldfinch	23	9
Chipping Sparrow	12	5
Clay-colored Sparrow	20	6
White-throated Sparrow	1	1
Savannah Sparrow	41	5
Song Sparrow	81	12
Swamp Sparrow	22	3
Yellow-headed Blackbird	184	7
Bobolink	2	1
Western Meadowlark	14	9
Orchard Oriole	2	1
Baltimore Oriole	15	5
Red-winged Blackbird	942	12
Brown-headed Cowbird	1	1
Brewer’s Blackbird	577	8
Common Grackle	286	9
blackbird sp.	5	1
Northern Waterthrush	3	3
Black-and-white Warbler	2	1
Common Yellowthroat	34	5
American Redstart	2	2
Cape May Warbler	1	1
Magnolia Warbler	2	1
Yellow Warbler	131	12
Rose-breasted Grosbeak	5	4

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Finally, this was Christian’s final IBA event before moving to his new home in Gatineau. He will be sorely missed, although he remains involved in the program even now from his new lofty position with the Canadian Wildlife Service.

Thank you once more for all your many contributions to this program in Manitoba.