On May 24, the Manitoba IBA program led an outing at Whitewater Lake IBA with the Westman Naturalists. It was a lovely day, with great weather. Our group of 15 spent the morning on the north side of the lake, counting birds and practicing shorebird identification.

A big thank you goes out to Gillian Richards, for joining us and sharing her incredible wealth of shorebird knowledge with the group! Gillian has been conducting International Shorebird Surveys (ISS) routes at Whitewater Lake for several years now and knows a lot about the area and its bird life.

We weren’t sure if we were going to find a lot of shorebirds, because their presence depends a lot on water levels. The location of suitable habitat (such as wet spots in agricultural fields) can change from day to day.  The water can’t be too deep, but it also can’t be too dry. Thankfully, the conditions were in our favour, and we spotted lots of shorebirds! A great opportunity to practice our shorebird ID skills.

We started off on the northeast side of the lake, birding for warblers in shelterbelts.  We gradually moved westward, checking out a few different spots including Road 123W and Sexton’s Point, before ending off with lunch on the west side of the lake on 15N.  

One of the highlights was a great view of a large group of about 50 Dunlin. The Dunlin is a shorebird species easily recognizable by its black belly patch (which is only there in spring plumage). We also got to see a few Black-bellied Plovers off in the distance, thanks to Amy’s eagle eyes!

Overall, we saw 13 shorebird species, including American Avocet, Black-bellied Plover, Marbled Godwit, Red-necked Phalarope, Wilsons’s Phalarope, Killdeer, Sanderling, Stilt Sandpiper, Upland Sandpiper, Willet and 3 “peep” species of (Least Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, White-rumped Sandpiper). The full species list can be found below at the end of this blog post.

Thank you so much to everyone who participated, and thank you again to the Westman Naturalists for joining us on this event.

This event was made possible by funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Fund.

Cheers!

Marissa

Species	Count
American Avocet	10
American Goldfinch	5
American Redstart	2
American Robin	3
American White Pelican	3
Baird’s Sandpiper	2
Bald Eagle	1
Barn Swallow	3
Black Tern	3
Black-bellied Plover	5
Blue Jay	4
Blue-winged Teal	11
Brown-headed Cowbird	3
Chestnut-sided Warbler	1
Cliff Swallow	1
Common Yellowthroat	1
Double-crested Cormorant	1
Dunlin	50
Eastern Kingbird	1
European Starling	2
Franklin’s Gull	2
Gadwall	4
Gray Catbird	1
Hooded Merganser	1
Killdeer	7
Least Flycatcher	1
Least Sandpiper	3
LeConte’s Sparrow	1
Magnolia Warbler	1
Mallard	10
Marbled Godwit	6
Marsh Wren	5
Mourning Dove	2
Northern Harrier	2
Northern House Wren	1
Northern Pintail	4
Northern Shoveler	12
Red-necked Phalarope	23
Red-winged Blackbird	34
Ring-billed Gull	1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1
Sanderling	6
Sedge Wren	1
Semipalmated Sandpiper	7
Snow Goose	20
Song Sparrow	2
Sora	4
Stilt Sandpiper	40
Tennessee Warbler	1
Upland Sandpiper	2
Western Meadowlark	2
White-faced Ibis	2
White-rumped Sandpiper	44
Willet	5
Wilson’s Phalarope	20
Yellow Warbler	1
Yellow-headed Blackbird	3
Total species	57
Total individuals	394