This afternoon's quest was some improvement in skill at identifying shorebirds, so I went looking for the W. Sandpiper. After running into a construction roadblock, I parked the DeLorme Atlas in my lap, and found another way to the farm pond where it had been reported. It took about a half hour, even with the scop, before I located what I thought was the western; the bird was very mobile, feeding constantly, ducking in and out of grass clumps, and plunging its tell-tale beak in the mud. (Thankfully, the Wilson's Phalaropes, 6 or 7 of them, were much easier to spot and identify, along with some of the other shorebirds !)
Luckily for me, the Strnads and the Krienkes came along, and helped me get better looks at it. The bird finally stood in the clear of the grasses, and stopped feeding long enough to give a nice profile view of it's down-curved beak and russet-colored areas. It was a challenge, but very rewarding to see. Linda Whyte ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
