Hello all! We spotted a adult male breeding plumage Curlew Sandpiper on the west end of Lake Byllesby! We got there at around 8:30am, waited for a long time for birds to show up, and at around 11:00am we spotted a red sandpiper across the lake in the reeds with Least Sandpipers and Lesser Yellowlegs. We actually first IDed it as a Red Knot after watching it for an hour and a half or so. It kept flying away with the peeps, then sailing back a little later to almost the same spot. The location we spotted it was this: From the parking lot, continue down the trail til you get to the woods and find a semi-path leading into the woods. If you continue down that path, eventually you get to a clearing on the shore. I stuck a large stick in the ground where we spotted it, but it might have blown over. After we left it, we ran into Skip Mott and Tom Will and told them about it. We decided to go and help them find it after we told them. We walked back to the spot and tried to relocate it. After a long time, it showed up with a flock of Pectoral Sandpipers in the pool behind the sand spit. Skip Mott and Tom Will watched it for a long time with us, and Tom started to suggest that it might not be a Red Knot, and eventually that it had to be a Curlew Sandpiper. Some of the differences we noticed were that it was a little smaller than the Pectoral Sandpipers, it had moderately long legs, and wasn't as plump and dumpy as a Red Knot should be. When the birds again flew off to land a little ways away we noticed a down-curved bill against the water and we saw a VERY sharp contrast in the wings of red, white, and black. It also didn't have as thick a bill as a Red Knot should have. The bird was still there when we left at around 1:10 pm. Also there was a single Marbled Godwit, scattered Dunlins, many Pectoral Sandpipers, a single female Wilson's Phalarope, many peeps, and many Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs.
Thanks again to Skip Mott and Tom Will for helping us properly ID the bird! - Leo WM
