Buff-Breasted Sandpiper Reply and Photo

August 30 Email:  

Hi Ric,

I observed and photographed the Buff-breasted Sandpiper for some time on Sunday morning, and raising its scapular feathers from time to time is something that it did.  The bird didn't seem to have a problem to me.  I'm attaching a photo of the sandpiper with its feathers down, but I also have photos of it with the feathers raised, just as Bob's photos show.

Jerry Vis

Jerry, thanks for the scapular feathers reply and for the beautiful portrait!  - Ric

Buff-breasted SP, Turnstone and Sanderling

Sorry about the late posting but on Sunday evening Bob Kingsbury sent these photos of a Buff-breasted Sandpiper that he photographed at the Wastewater.  Bob was wondering if the protruding scapular feathers meant that the bird had some kind of a problem; comments welcome!

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On Monday Carol Cooper emailed: "While on the north pier at Grand Haven, watching the catwalk come down, these two (Ruddy Turnstone and Sanderling) were quite friendly, running around right near me."

- Ric

Our First Male Hummingbird at the Feeder

This summer Carol and I had seen only female hummingbirds at our feeder until this afternoon when a male, perhaps a migrant, finally showed up.  The lighting in the picture makes him look like a red-collared black-and-white speckle-throat, but in real life he was a standard-issue (beautiful) Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

- Ric

Saturday's Field Trip Report

Yesterday before the rain people on our August field trip found 40+ species of birds on the Wastewater properties.  See the report posted on our homepage.

Sanderlings

These are two of the five Sanderlings that were on the Grand Haven north pier tonight.  Not much going on.

- Charlie DeWitt

Food for Thought

August 16 to Mich-chat:

Interesting that a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper shows up at a fish hatchery in
Arkansas two days after one left its known presence in Michigan.  And
provided another 1st State record (eBird).

- Charlie Weaver

Sunday Update Regarding Saturday Birds

My timing couldn't have been better on a quick trip out to the Wastewater Saturday morning.  I met Phil Chu, saw the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, and met Lizzy Kibbey (a.k.a. Lizard, Lizzy the Fabulous and the Magical Duck Wizard) for the first time.  She was birding with James Fyfe, Steve Minard, and other members of the Grand Rapids Audubon Club.

Regarding the sandpiper, it was last reported to Mich-listers by Heidi Grether of Williamston at 4:00 Saturday afternoon and has not been seen today despite the efforts of 40+ birders.

Regarding Lizzy, I asked her if she would send me a report of what she and her group had seen yesterday.  I also mentioned that I was surprised on a bike ride yesterday afternoon to have found Brian Johnson at the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve removing invasive plant species and banding birds.  I attached this photo to Lizzy and asked her to guess the species, sex and age.



This afternoon Lizzy emailed this report:

It was nice meeting you finally! Yes, we will have to bird sometime!

The Sharp-tailed Sandpiper continued to be present throughout the stay of our roughly four and a half hour MWW round-about trip stay. It also continued to draw in a large crowd of people, all of which stopped and asked us if we knew about the birds where abouts. Our GRAC trip was going on that morning, if you didn't know that. It was James and Becky who were leading it, and the main objective was to find shorebirds. And find shorebirds we did! That Sharp-tailed just happend to have SUCH perfect timing! Here is the great list of shorebirds that we managed to pull off today!

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper - 1
Semipalmated Plover - 10
Pectoral Sandpiper - 15
Killdeer - 12 (It's a sad day when there are more LEYE in the MWW than there are KILL!)
Lesser Yellowlegs - 28
Least Sandpiper - 20
Spotted Sandpiper - 9
Black-bellied Plover - 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper - 27
Wilson's Phalarope - 2 (I think me and Mr. Fyfe are the only ones in our group that caught the fact that there were two swimming together; one immature, and one nonbreeding adult. Same cell as STSA.)
Solitary Sandpiper - 4
Sanderling - 1 (One molting from breeding to nonbreeding; still had bright red on chest area.)
Short-billed Dowitcher - 1
Stilt Sandpiper - 1
Baird's Sandpiper - 1

(We also had a good flock (32) of Bobolinks, the Ring-necked Duck continued to make an appearence at the E Lagoon, A Sharp-shinned Hawk around the edge of the E Lagoon, and a Peregrine over there too, two Kestrels, three turkeys, and a few different species of ducks. I took some pictures, so once I get them uploaded, I'll send them to you to attach into your report!)

We also searched for Golden-Plovers, and Uplands, but lucked out on both of those. I guess we expected too much; we expected the STSA to be there, and that we'd find a plethora of all the stuff we wouldn't see. Just great....

After some of our group left, five of us remained, and we headed over to the MLNP. Brian was doing his work, setting up nets. Yellow Warblers were still plentiful, and so were Warbling Vireos. Becky and me had two flyover Common Nighthawks in cloudly sunshine, but everyone else was busy talking to Brian. As Becky was leaving to head home, and leaving us to wander more to find the Northern Waterthrush we'd come for, a female American Redstart almost landed on her shoulder! Apparently they are used to frequent contact with Brian, and aren't much afraid. We checked out on the water, and managed to see an Osprey flying near the power stack. We also heard a Virginia Rail, and saw two flyover Green Herons.

Honestly, that bird looks like a Yellow Warbler. I'd say a female Yellow Warbler. Saw how plentiful they were in the area of that picture, as we were over there yesterday ourselves. Bill is long, and thin, taking away the chance of it being a Goldfinch. Wings show some dark greenish to black. From the angle, I can't really tell if it has wingbars or not, and can't look for the notch in the tail. That and the leg color is pinkish, so I'll stick with female Yellow Warbler! That's a very good picture by the way!

- Lizzy

---

Thanks, Lizzy!  It's easy to take a good picture when someone is holding the bird six inches from the camera!

Photo Quiz Answer:  Lizzy's excellent guess is what Brian was thinking too at first.  However, the slight traces of red streaks in the breast convinced him that this is a first-year male Yellow Warbler.  - Ric

Lizzy's photo of the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (bird on the right):

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Saturday Morning

The Sharp-tailed Sandpiper was re-found at 7:40 this morning.  By 8:00 there were also two dozen bird-watchers at the Wastewater including Phil Chu from Minnesota!

- Ric

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper All Day Friday

The Sharp-tailed Sandpiper was still at the Muskegon County Wastewater System as of 11:00 a.m. today.*

 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

A few of the birders who came out to see the sandpiper.

Photos by Carol DeWitt.  Posted by Charlie DeWitt.

* The Sharp-tailed Sandpiper was still reported at the same location by James Markham at 7:35 p.m. Friday. - Ric

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at the Wastewater !

Posted 4:49 p.m. to Mich-Listers:

All,

I realize the rarity of this post but had to be certain before I sent out a
note.  I have spent the last 3-4 hrs in touch with shorebird expert Greg
Neise on Facebook and he and others have confirmed my sighting of
SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER today at the Muskegon Wastewater Treatment Facility.  I have photos upon request.  They will be in the ebird checklist also.  The bird was sighted at about 11:00 a.m. today in the westernmost empty aeration cell.

Good birding!

Kevin Vande Vusse

- - -

Thanks to Caleb Putnam for using his iPhone to send us three of Kevin's photos:

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at the Wastewater !

Posted 4:49 p.m. to Mich-Listers:

All,

I realize the rarity of this post but had to be certain before I sent out a
note.  I have spent the last 3-4 hrs in touch with shorebird expert Greg
Neise on Facebook and he and others have confirmed my sighting of
SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER today at the Muskegon Wastewater Treatment Facility.  I have photos upon request.  They will be in the ebird checklist also.  The bird was sighted at about 11:00am today in the westernmost empty aeration cell.

Good birding!

Kevin Vande Vusse

Two Mornings at Grand Haven's North Pier

 One of 15 Caspian Terns I counted on Tuesday

 Forster's Terns on Tuesday

 One of 4 Semipalmated Sandpipers on Tuesday

 On Wednesday I had 2 Great Blue Herons fly over.

The Bonaparte's Gulls are still around.

- Charlie DeWitt

Black-bellied Plover at W.W. Saturday

August 7 Email:

The center aeration cell, the really large one, has just enough water in it to make it inviting to shorebirds.   - Ken Sapkowski

Black-bellied Plover by Ken Sapkowski

Wastewater Birds While Not Birding

I took some site photos at the Wastewater this morning for a program Charlie DeWitt and I are planning.  I didn't figure on bird-watching much, but that place makes you watch birds in spite of yourself.  Nice views of Red-tailed Hawks, American Kestrels, Great Blue Herons and Upland Sandpipers.

I saw two Sandhill Cranes dancing east of the granery.  They wouldn't dance for the camera.

At the southeast corner of the East Lagoon, Marc Miedema was scoping a Solitary Sandpiper.  A Least showed up for the picture.

This white bird with orange on its wings and tail flew northwest of the Laketon-Swanson intersection before settling onto that field.

- Ric

Sunday Afternoon at the Grand Haven Pier

 Double-crested Cormorant

 Ruddy Turnstone

Least Sandpiper

The Double-crested Cormorant posed for pictures for over an hour.  People and dogs could get within 3 feet of it.

Other birds on the pier were 1 Ruddy Turnstone, 1 Least Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Sandpiper, 20 Bonaparte's Gulls, 1 Forster's Tern plus Ring-billed Gulls and Herring Gulls.

- Charlie DeWitt