Brig 8/16--American Avocet

American Avocets

I wasn't going to go two months without adding a year bird, was I? Since the local spots have had the same old same old and the weather was propitious, I drove down to Brig early this morning--there were possibilities there, only one of which I considered likely. 

I started the trip walking around the Visitor's Center, looking for the Lark Sparrow that has been hanging in the vicinity for a few days, but it wasn't around and when a couple of other birders showed up looking for it, I decided to bail and do some real birding. 

At the Gull Pond the light was terrible, but I did manage to pick out two Northern Shovelers in among the Mallards--mostly by size and behavior (they were "shoveling") but they did pick their bills out of the shallow water a couple of times to give me the clinching look--they were either hens or eclipsed drakes--too far, to glary, to tell and who cares?

Starting around the Wildlife Drive I was surprised at how little water was in the impoundments--great, desert-like stretches without a puddle. It is traditional to complain about the water levels at Brig but this seemed extreme--it made me regret even more missing the trip to Bombay Hook this year. And that is why I was at Brig--if I wasn't going to get one of my favorite shorebirds in Delaware, then I was hoping I could add it to list in Galloway. And just before the observation tower on the south dike, when I stopped to scan the shorebirds in one of the few decent expanses of water, there they were--6 American Avocets, and even in the lousy light I could see their buffy flanks. A couple had extremely turned up beaks, making them females. Six also was more than eBird thought proper. Luckily, they were all together and I could fit them in one photo frame. 

On the north dike, shorebirds were abundant--but they were much too distant to call them anything other than "peeps." The close-in mud flats had a decent flock of Semipalmated Plovers and a few scattered shorebirds, but if there were any phalaropes, Western Sandpipers, stints, or other rarities, they were among the specks a quarter mile away. Those birds that weren't specks were mostly Short-billed Dowitchers. I bet there was a Long-billed Dowitcher or two in with them, but again, distance was not my friend.

I parked my car at Jen's Trail and decided take my walk along the upland portion of the drive where the greenhead flies tend not to attack you--they pass that job onto the deer flies which are at least easier to kill.  While I was walking a truck pulled alongside me with a couple of birding friends. They'd also been looking for the Lark Sparrow with no luck. They had also missed the avocets, so I told them where they were if they wanted to make a second loop. They did, and on the way back to my car I saw them again. I was about 200 yards away from my car when my friend called me to say that the Lark Sparrow was back, sitting in a dead tree by the pay kiosk across from the Visitor's Center. I hoofed it to my car (my pedometer said I was walking 3.8 mph) and drove about the speed limit to get there, but of course, it was gone by the time I arrived. I spent the next 45 minutes or so walking around the area, looking for the bird, but it was really a half-hearted attempt on my part. The bird could be anywhere and anywhere includes lots of places I can't be. 

For the day, 58 species, a decent number. 

Canada Goose  15
Mute Swan  12
Wood Duck  2
Northern Shoveler  2     
Mallard  20
Mourning Dove  12
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1
Clapper Rail  2
American Avocet  6     
Black-bellied Plover  30
Killdeer  1
Semipalmated Plover  85
Short-billed Dowitcher  150
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Greater Yellowlegs  5
Ruddy Turnstone  1
Least Sandpiper  120
Semipalmated Sandpiper  30
peep sp.  2000     Too far out to identify
Laughing Gull  150
American Herring Gull  20
Black Skimmer  2
Least Tern  10
Caspian Tern  8
Forster's Tern  105
Double-crested Cormorant  175
White Ibis  16
Glossy Ibis  85
Black-crowned Night Heron  1
Tricolored Heron  1
Snowy Egret  50
Great Egret  80
Great Blue Heron  21
Osprey  3
Cooper's Hawk  1
Bald Eagle  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1
Eastern Phoebe  1
Eastern Kingbird  2
Blue Jay  3
American Crow  15
Carolina Chickadee  5
Tree Swallow  35
Barn Swallow  4
Northern House Wren  1
Carolina Wren  3
European Starling  50
Gray Catbird  10
Northern Mockingbird  1
House Sparrow  3
American Goldfinch  8
Chipping Sparrow  5
Song Sparrow  2
Eastern Towhee  1
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Common Yellowthroat  2
Northern Cardinal  2

Indigo Bunting  1