321

I thought that the Little Blue Heron I saw yesterday would be my last year bird before I leave for James Bay, but it turns out that that wasn't the case! This afternoon Mike Cadman found a male Red-necked Phalarope hanging out at the north end of Mountsberg Conservation Area, southeast of Guelph in Wellington County so Laura and I went to check it out this evening. My post to the listserv....

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I checked out the north end of Mountsberg this evening (7:30 PM) with my girlfriend Laura to look for the Red-necked Phalarope that Mike Cadman had found earlier in the day. At the north end, looking through the patch in the cedars, I had:

10+ Killdeer
5+ Spotted Sandpiper
20+ Lesser Yellowlegs
3 Greater Yellowlegs
7 Solitary Sandpiper
1 Stilt Sandpiper (adult)
30+ Least Sandpiper
3 Baird's Sandpiper 
20+ Semipalmated Sandpiper
6 Pectoral Sandpiper
1 Red-necked Phalarope (adult male)

The location is east of HWY 6 and south of HWY 401. From HWY 6, take Leslie Road heading east. After the intersection with Watson Road, the north end of Mountsberg is on the right after a few hundred meters. The mudflats are quite extensive and should be productive for shorebirds for some time. This is in Wellington County and is a part of the Hamilton Study Area.

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I didn't get any photos due to the distance so here are some shots of a Red-necked Phalarope from Tilbury last year. The one today was an adult male, unlike the juvenile in these photos.

Red-necked Phalarope - Tilbury lagoons

Red-necked Phalarope - Tilbury lagoons

So there you go - up to 321 before the James Bay trip! The Red-necked Phalarope was a code-2 bird, meaning that the only code 2 birds left are Red Knot, Purple Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Parasitic Jaeger, Arctic Tern, and Nelson's Sparrow.