Brig | Whitesbog 9/2--Common Gallinule, Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Whitesbog

Considering that Labor Day started out with a low pressure tire light on the dashboard and we had to spend 30 minutes at AAA getting a puncture fixed, the day turned out pretty well. Shari & I eventually made our way to Brig. There were 3 target species for the day. The first one was at the Gull Pond. I had heard that in order to see the Common Gallinule you had to go up to the observation tower and look way in the back for the hard to see rail. I usually don't like climbing up the tower, not because I'm afraid of heights, but because anyone else being up there tends to shake the tower and in turn your scope, making getting a fix on a bird really frustrating.

Common Gallinule

But I was getting worked up for nothing. Shari got out of the car, took one look in the pond, pointed, and there was the bird, about halfway out, in the middle of the pond along a line of floating vegetation. Easy.

For those of you who haven't followed taxonomy very closely, you'd call this bird Common Moorhen as many old-timers insist on doing, but, as I like (at this juncture, tediously) to point out, the name is nonsensical since we have no moors and half of them aren't hens.  And don't get me started on the Toledo Mudhens.

On to the dikes and on to the next bird. The water was very high on the outside channel, so we concentrated on the impoundments. At Marker #4 there were a good mix of sandpipers, including a couple of Stilt Sandpipers (new for the year for Shari) but not Target Bird #2. We moved on, stopping at a sand spit where we found 5 tern species gathered in one spot (Caspian, Royal, Forster's, Least, and Black Skimmer) along with a gulls. We were just about to go to the next spot when I found what we were looking for, an American Avocet, standing on one leg between two gulls. Now, it isn't like we didn't see 10,000 avocets in Utah, or that I didn't see hundreds last week in Delaware, it is just that Brig avocet is a bird that turns up only once in a while, so it's something to hunt for.

We kept traveling around the dikes and as we turned on to the north dike I got an alert from one of my Whitesbog friends that a Buff-breasted Sandpiper was in the middle bog. I have to say that my interest in being at Brig fell off precipitously. Still, we had miles to go, so when we got to the dogleg we stopped and looked assiduously for the reported Black-bellied Ducks. Shari doesn't care about her year list (but I do, since I maintain it); she just likes the ducks and wanted to see them. Alas, we couldn't find them. We found lots of brown ducks, but no big goofy ones. And besides, my mind had wandered to Whitesbog.

So off we went, 45 miles northwest to the bogs. I was sure the bird would still be there. The middle bog has the advantage (unlike many grasspiper spots) of being relatively easy to survey. I saw a friend of mine standing with his scope on the dike between the lower and middle bog and raced over to him. He had had the Buffy, but some ATVs had come roaring by and scared the bird and now he couldn't find it again. ATVs, dirt bikes, and general dirt bags are the reasons I usually avoid Whitesbog past about 10 o'clock on weekends and holidays. The weather was getting windy and storm was approaching so I gave up the search and we left.

I wasn't home a half hour when another alert came through that the sandpiper was in the northeast corner of the bog. With curses, I flew out of the house and drove back to Whitesbog. I really wanted this bird for two reasons
1) it is a great Whitesbog bird (and Burlco tick)
2) it would mean I didn't have to go stand on the side of a road surveying one of the many Reed's Sod Farms in Monmouth and Mercer.

With Killdeer

I got to Whitesbog, drove to one corner on the bog where I though I could scan the bog, didn't see the bird and decided to drive around to the other corner. I felt a few raindrops as I walked off the newly filled in dam. As soon as I got into the car it was like someone dropped a hundred buckets of water on the car. A huge storm swirled through as I drove through instant mud to the other side of the bog. But as soon as I got to my parking spot, the rain let up, I rolled down the passenger window, and there it was, standing around with a couple of Killdeer. And it was a beautiful bird too, very fresh, with scaly wings, a buffy breast, a head like a pigeon and black button eye. Probably a young bird, born this year. I texted Mike. Now all I had to do was keep the bird in sight for the 45 minutes it would take him to get there.

It gave me a very good opportunity to study the bird. Usually I don't look at a bird for 45 minutes. I didn't like to study when I was in school and I'm not crazy about it now. But the bird moved ever farther into the middle of the bog, closer to the stream that runs through it, and I kept a watch on it and the 3 Pectoral Sandpipers that came in to play with it. Rain started to fall again. I draped a cloth over my scope and kept at my post. The bird moved out of sight for a moment, behind a clump of grass, but I stayed steady until it reappeared. The sun came out. It rained again. Finally, after 47 minutes, I saw Mike's car splashing through the puddles. I turned my head to greet him--and lost the bird! But only for a few seconds. Soon he was on it. We walked up the dam a little (I didn't want to move until he saw it for fear that I would flush it) and we got closer looks and then it began to rain again and enough was enough.

I only regret that Shari didn't get to see the bird, but she was on to other pursuits by the time I made my return.