BC Fairgrounds 8/14--Another Example of the 2nd Law of Birding

Which states:
You will not see the bird until you truly give up

After my daily traipse around the two drained bogs at Whitesbog, where there are now 3 Little Blue Herons (would 4 constitute a flock?) and a little of everything but not much of anything, I saw that at the Burlington County Fairgrounds 3 Upland Sandpipers were still in the fields beyond the parking lot. While not a year bird, they would be Burlco year birds and are always cool birds to see, so I drove over there, despite a sudden rainstorm that hit as I passed by Fort Dix.

The rain became drizzle as I pulled into the parking lot. There are a lot of fields beyond that lot and I didn't know where the sandpipers were but, as I usually do, I parked and began to walk the fence line. I had also seen that 90 Bobolinks had been reported this morning, so I thought they might be consolation birds if I missed the uppies. However, mostly what I saw were Laughing Gulls presumably making their way to the Delaware and Barn Swallows swooping over the grasslands and mowed fields.

Finally, while scanning a field of wildflowers with my binoculars, I found one Bobolink teed up on a stalk. Then a few Killdeers flew over. Then more Killdeers going into and out of the fields and a then a couple of Least Sandpipers flew right by me, close enough to identify naked eye. The parking spaces there run parallel to the fence line; I had parked in space #2. When I saw what I was pretty sure were the 3 uppies far out in the field, I was at space #75. I walked back to the car to get my scope, walked back to space #75, set up the scope, and miraculously, the 3 birds were still there, walking right. Behind them were about 25 Killdeer. I tried to take some digiscope photos but bad lighting, distance, and small birds made for completely useless photos. They weren't even good photos of grass!

Then I lost them. I didn't see them fly, and the grass was of an even height, yet I couldn't find them. I shouldn't have cared, but it bugged me, because this has been happening a lot to me lately at Whitesbog, where I have a bird and then I don't and unless they're sinking into the ground, I don't know where they're going.

So, while I was scanning the fields, back and forth, back and forth, another birder pulled up. We'd met before, though I didn't really remember. I told him I'd had the uppies; he'd come for the uppies; the uppies would be lifers for him. So we kept looking long after I'd have normally left. We saw an Osprey of all hawks, far out in the field. It too was presumably on its way to the Delaware and was only making a pit stop there. But after a half hour of looking, we gave up.  "Past my lunch time," I told him. "Oh well," he said. And then...he saw three birds, farther out than I had seen them, and more to the left. I gave him my scope while I scanned with my bins. He couldn't find the place in the field where they were walking, but I saw them, put them in the scope and he had his lifers. After he had truly given up. And thus, the law is proven yet again.