Baird's Sandpiper at Marathon

[click image to enlarge]

One of the less common Calidris shorebirds we see on the north shore, this Baird's Sandpiper briefly visited the rocks beside the boat launch in Peninsula Harbour this afternoon.

Watching fish in Lake Superior

Matt Jackson shared these great shots of a school of 200-300 fish he encountered in Pukaskwa National Park. Matt wrote:

I was actually snorkeling in Horseshoe Bay when I encountered them. I swam from shore out to the small island that is about 300-400 metres off shore, and on my way back I encountered them along one of the underwater cliffs on the north side of the bay. I started following them and managed to stay with them for perhaps five minutes. They weren't moving all that fast.

Matt added that the fish were about eight inches long. The shape, colouration, behavior and presence of an adipose fin are characteristic of the whitefish/cisco/lake herring subfamily (coregoninae), of which a handful of species are known from the waters off Pukaskwa. Without a specimen in hand, my best guess is that these are juvenile Lake Herring, also called cisco, (Coregonus artedi).

Water temperatures in Lake Superior are very high this summer.

Thanks for sharing the great photos Matt.

Southbound shorebirds

Solitary Sandpiper in Marathon

Lesser Yellowlegs at Coldwell

A few southbound shorebirds have been seen around Marathon in the last week. Several Least Sandpipers were resting at the boat launch in Jellicoe Cove.