On a clearer and cooling morning, I made the morning trek to CSSP in a last ditch erfort to see if there were yet more Whimbrels passing through ... it paid off with another 436 this morning between 5:30 and 5:56 [groups of 3 and 7 on rocky rip-rap@5:30; 350 + 45 passing a half km. offshore heading wnw over the lake@5:35; 6 and 8 overhead from sw to ne@5:40; 17 overhead from se to nw@5:56]. I left the area at 7:00 a.m. at which time at least 8 birders were still on the lookout for more birds. David Hallett and I had a flock of 40 Whimbrels flying north over Rattray Marsh@6:00 pm yesterday (25 May). According to my notes and postings by others the total count of Whimbrels from Colonel Sam Smith Park,Etobicoke to Rattray Marsh, Mississauga from 14 May when I saw my first flock to this morning stands at 7,082. The value of this documented total and high day count on 23 May of over 3000 cannot be underplayed ... but much more work needs to be done to further document the exact numbers passing. Several others, among them Jean Iron and Richard Joos, and I strongly believe a more concerted effort should be organized next year to monitor the Whimbrel migration continuously from dawn to dusk from CSSP from 22 to 26 May. If people can stand for hours and hours over weeks and weeks at the hawk watches ... why can't they stand for 5 days watching for Whimbrels? As far as I know actual numbers like this have not been recorded in the Great Lakes basin and rarely even on the Pacific flyway (max.: Brawley, Imperial,CA, 3 My 1990 3000+ McCaskie (1990). The exact size of the eastern arctic breeding population which migrates north from winter areas in nw south american via coastal Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia then via the great lakes basin to breeding areas in nw Ontario and n Manitoba is still uncertain with the best estimates for the major staging area Virginia. In 2001 surveys conducted by the Chincoteague Natural History Association estimated 40,000 along the Virginia coast (Chincoteague Natural History Association@http//www.assateague.org/plover/3-96 c.html@9 November 2001). Only in the central flyway along coastal Texas have higher record day counts ( Anuhac NWR 21 Ap 2005 5127 Lockwood et al 2005). >Directions: >Kipling runs directly into Colonel Sam Smith Park and adjacent Humber College Lakeshore campus, located west of Islington and east of Brown's Line south of the Q.E.W. > >Wayne Renaud >905.274.7103 or 905.278.5813 >wayne@renaudwebber.com