The shorebirds have started returning to Dorchester Cape.
Every year more than a quarter million shorebirds–about 30% of the world’s population–return to the Bay of Fundy’s tidal mudflats as part of their long migration from the Arctic all the way to South America.
On the expansive mudflats near Johnson’s Mills on Dorchester Cape, tens of thousands of semipalmated sandpipers and other shorebirds have gathered and will continue to gather over the coming weeks to feed and get ready to continue their journey.
Recently, interpreters at Johnson’s Mill have reported counts of 50,000 to 60,000 shorebirds. Some years, the numbers have topped 100,000.
This year, the gathering shorebirds will unwittingly help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Johnson’s Mills Shorebird Interpretive Centre run by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. The centre staff will host a special 25th anniversary open house event during the Sandpiper Festival on Saturday, August 9, from 9am to 5pm, with the best viewing of birds between 10am and 2pm.
In anticipation of the sandpipers return, we dug into the CHMA archives for a conversation with then-manager of the centre, Zoe Estabrooks, who shared some information about the birds back in August 2022:
The Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Shorebird Interpretive Centre at Johnson’s Mills is just off route 935, about 10 minutes outside Dorchester.
The village of Dorchester will celebrate the annual migration stop with their annual Sandpiper Festival, this year running from August 8 to 10. You can find out more at tantramarnb.com/sandpiper.
More information on Johnson’s Mills, along with tide timetables, is available on the Nature Conservancy of Canada website.
