Seven Presidents Park 4/20--Upland Sandpiper

The day started with teeming rain, so Mike's 3rd installment of The Birds of Jackson series was cancelled. I went back to bed and when I awoke, mid-morning, the skies had cleared but I didn't much feel like going out. I figured the birds would be quiet by that time of the day.

Around 2:30, as I was sitting on the couch in a near torpor, watching the Mets start to lose, Mike texted me and said he was considering trying for the Uppie at Seven Presidents Park. The thought had crossed my mind earlier, but I was feeling profoundly lazy. Somehow I roused myself and within a half hour we were on our way north.

This seemingly lost Upland Sandpiper has been sticking in the same grassy field at Seven Presidents since Wednesday. Usually, I get my Uppies at Lakehurst, in June, but there are no guarantees, so a potential bird in the scope was worth the try, especially given the binary conditions of the hunt--it would obviously be there or not. We were fairly confident of it being there since another birder posted a picture of it just before we left, but a lot can happen in 45 minutes.

When we got there, it looked, at first, like a lot happened, because as we scanned along the fence line where the bird had been seen and photographed, we saw only grackles, robins, and starlings. We heard a Killdeer. No Uppie.

We changed our angle of view, walking farther into the gravel parking lot and scanned again. Amazingly, I found the bird sitting in the grass, just a brown lump in the green lawn. It wasn't a very satisfying look, but then, obligingly, the bird stood up, looked around, opened its wings for a moment, and then just stood there, looking dazed. Mike theorized that the bird wasn't well. Don't know, but it was still there this afternoon when Shari went to look for it after work. Uppies breed in New Jersey in very select locations--in fact, at this point Lakehurst might be the only spot. This one doesn't look like it will be one of the breeders.