Brig 8/16--Pectoral Sandpiper

Pectoral Sandpiper

A mid-week trip to Brig seemed much more appealing than going there on a weekend, jostling with the frenzied hordes scoping shorebirds and photographing Ospreys. Scott & Linda were leading one today, so I drove down, girding myself for long stretches of sorting through sandpipers. They peak at Brig in mid-August, so there was plenty of them to look through, especially around GM 4, where all the action seems to have migrated (ha!) of late. 

The mudflats were solid with Semipalmated Sandpipers. Using them as a comparison we kept coming up with "interesting" shorebirds, most of them fairly closely in with easy to see field markings, like the barred flanks of a Stilt Sandpiper, or the white supercilium of a White-rumped Sandpiper.  We had 17 species of shorebirds altogether. No Willets!? The stars were the Red-necked Phalarope at 4 and 3 Wilson's Phalaropes at the dogleg. However, for me, having seen literally thousands of phalaropes in Oregon this month, the standout bird was the only year bird of the day--a Pectoral Sandpiper which was discovered just as the group was going to move on. Amazingly, I found it without any help. Almost as amazingly, I was able to digiscope a recognizable photo of it. There were also a couple of American Avocets there. Again, having seen thousands of them this month, not that exciting, and, at this time of year, they're not even considered rare at Brig. 

There was one odd duck at the Gull Pond--a hen Hooded Merganser, which I found from the tower before I joined the group. I think there may actually be two there, as I found another candidate near the Laughing Gulls, but I never got a definitive answer and, as I say, probably too much for my birding friends, "you only need one." 

For one leisurely loop around the Wildlife Drive and a couple of visits to the Gull Pond, I totaled 55 species on the day.

Canada Goose  7
Mute Swan  50
Wood Duck  2
Mallard  7
Hooded Merganser  1     
Mourning Dove  3
American Avocet  2
Black-bellied Plover  2
Semipalmated Plover  20
Whimbrel  1
Stilt Sandpiper  1
Least Sandpiper  3
White-rumped Sandpiper  1
Pectoral Sandpiper  1
Semipalmated Sandpiper  1000
Western Sandpiper  1
Short-billed Dowitcher  210
Long-billed Dowitcher  1
Wilson's Phalarope  3     
Red-necked Phalarope  1     
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Greater Yellowlegs  10
Lesser Yellowlegs  5
Laughing Gull  150
Herring Gull  50
Least Tern  2
Gull-billed Tern  2
Caspian Tern  6
Common Tern  1
Forster's Tern  70
Black Skimmer  3
Double-crested Cormorant  80
Great Blue Heron  4
Great Egret  60
Snowy Egret  20
Little Blue Heron  2
Black-crowned Night-Heron  1
Glossy Ibis  23
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  6
Bald Eagle  1
Eastern Kingbird  2
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  6
Fish Crow  25
Carolina Chickadee  1
Purple Martin  25
Tree Swallow  50
Bank Swallow  2
Marsh Wren  1
Carolina Wren  3
Gray Catbird  1
American Goldfinch  2
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Northern Cardinal  1

American Avocets