BC Fairgrounds 8/8--Upland Sandpiper

Upland Sandpiper just to the right of the tall grass

Bad weather birding: I usually avoid it but today I found myself predawn at Whitesbog in a driving rain with Jim and Matt because the forecast was for an end to precipitation shortly after sunrise and the hope was that the combination of NE winds and rain would drop some goodies into the bogs. It took a while longer for  the rain to stop and the hope to be fulfilled but both occurred around 7 o'clock when another birder there alerted us to the presence of 5 Sanderlings.  

"Sanderlings?" you say, "Sanderlings are worth a rain-soaked morning?" Yes, because while they're common of course 20+ miles east of Whitesbog, running like little wind-up toys along the edges of the receding waves, they are exceedingly rare in the Pine Barrens with only the occasional singleton showing up in odd locations like the Burlco Fairgrounds a few years ago, or drained Chatsworth Lake this spring. Five breaks the record by far. Fortunately, we all got decent looks at the birds because, as if realizing that the sand bar they were on in no way resembled the ocean, they were gone before we could put out an alert that we would have had to instantly withdraw. 

The rest of the morning was spent in conversation and scanning from the dike between the Upper and Middle Bogs and while no new shorebirds showed up, we did have quite a few flyovers of Laughing Gulls, Herring Gulls, and 3 Caspian Terns, all adding to my cumulative Whitesbog month list. Blustery and cold, it sure didn't feel like August. 

After we'd squeezed all the entertainment value out of the bogs, Jim and Matt left to go to look at the Fairgrounds and I spent a little more time kicking around Union Pond and Ditch Meadow. I was just about to hit the exit road when I got a text from Jim that they'd found an Upland Sandpiper at the fairgrounds. There aren't many places to find Uppies in NJ, especially now that the annual Lakehurst Naval Base trips are in the past, so when one plunks down fairly close to you, you go. 

Jim and Matt were still there, the sun was out, the wind had stopped, and the bird was distant but viewable in via scope. Upland Sandpiper seems to be semi-regular at the Fairgrounds, but it's appearance is dependent upon how much of the fields are mown and when. I was there last week and they were mowing the fields then so searching for an Uppie would not have been productive, but given a quiet weekend, one showed up. Easy to find--just look for a clod of dirt that eventually moves.