Interesting peep at Presqu'ille plus birding plans

This morning I received a call about an interesting peep that was being seen down at Presqu'ile Provincial Park. There was the possibility it was a Little Stint (only a couple of previous Ontario records, and a Code-6 bird) so my brother and I drove down from Kingston to take a look at it. It was very convenient that I was in Kingston for the weekend, as it was only an hour drive!

We arrived to a mass of birders looking at the peep. It appeared to be a first winter bird that had mostly molted into its basic plumage. For much of the observation the bird was too distant to get much on it, but eventually we moved closer and it did as well, so we were able to study it well from a moderate distance. This time we were able to get a much better look at the bird, and it appeared to have pale legs - a feature associated with Least Sandpiper and not Little Stint. Some things seemed odd for a 1st-winter Least Sandpiper though. The bird appeared very pale for one, and the supercilium was very much flared towards the rear. To be honest, I had never really seen Least Sandpipers that advanced in basic plumage before, which could account for why the bird seemed strange. Everything else lined up with Least Sandpiper though!

Looking at Alvan's photos that he took today, the bird does appear to be a Least Sandpiper. I wasn't too disappointed as the drive wasn't too long (plus I got to rock out to some tunes with my bro for a few hours) and I was able to catch up with some friends who I hadn't seen in a while.

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Current birding plans - Prince Edward County!

I haven't done that much birding in Prince Edward County before, except for a few hours earlier this spring to take a look at this handsome fella:

Prince Edward County is an interesting birding location with a ton of rarity potential. I'm excited to explore it tomorrow, and possibly the next day as well! My main target of course is still Pacific Loon since I struck out on the drive up to Kingston. But who knows what else could be around! Prince Edward seems like a good place for Eiders and Barrow's Goldeneyes, species that I'll definitely be on the look out for.

Cheers!