[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Good birds



     This morning before work, I visited a local golf course, planning to
look for migrating sandpipers along the edge of a pond on the course.  I
must have been an interesting sight as I stood with umbrella in one hand
and binoculars in the other.   I did see a spotted sandpiper still in
winter plumage.  The big find was a flock of peeps.  I looked carefully,
made a tentative id of least sandpipers, and walked back to my car to look
at the NG guide.   Then I went back out to the area in which the peeps were
feeding, edged as close as possible, and looked hard at legs and feet.  In
the gray morning light, the color of the legs was difficult to determine.
I found that most of the peeps, about a dozen or so, were least sandpipers.
With them were two or three semipalmated.  The semipalms were slightly
larger than the leasts and had black legs.  The legs of the least pipers
looked dark, not black, and I could see a yellowish cast on the ones that I
got closest to.
     Today I still have yellow-rumped warblers at the house, a
white-throated sparrow, and some goldfinches.  My wife enjoyed seeing
rose-breasted grosbeaks for the third day in a row.

Bob

--------------------------------------------------
Robert C. Perkins, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Methodist College, Fayetteville, NC 28311
910-630-7037     rperkins@methodist.edu