Broad-Billed Sandpiper Jamaica Bay, New York
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BIRDING TOURS WORLDWIDE including: ß,•• ISLAND,BAYOFFUNDY NOVA SCOTIA&BRIER "'' August15-22 with Doug McRae & Broad-billed ß . MeganEdwards Seabirds,shorebirds, migrants &whalesß 'tt SOUTHAFRICA October 9-31 with Richard Webster Sand, iper Birdinghighlights from Cape Town to the DrakensbergandNatal. a inc, Bay, Ne' York •' NEWGUINEA & AUSTRALIA Broad-billedSandpiper (Limi½ola fal½ieellus) at JamaicaBay Wildlife Refuge, Gateway October 13-31 NationalRecreation Area, Qaeens• New ¾ork• in late August1998. Fieldcharacters include with Chris Benesh the darkmantle with pale streaks•dark crown and aaricalarswith a prominentpale super- . Richand diverse sampler ofthe best ciliam•Iong• rather straight bill kinkeddownward at the tip• and sparselystreaked baffy •: birdingofthese two countries. breast.The breastpattern and fresh, baff-fringedwing covertsindicate juvenal plumage. BELIZE:CHAN CHICH & Photograph/ArthurMorris/Birds as Art HIDDENVALLEY WlLUAM L. BENNER * TwoThanksgiving tours: Editor'sNote: Portions of thisaccount, including a black-and-whiteversion of oneof thephoto- NvemberwithChris 19'27Benesh &Robin Roche graphs,were published in The Kingbird,Vol. 48, No. 3, pp.182-185. withNovemberMegan 21-29Edwards FINDING THE BIRD Atwogreat fabulous crosssites.section of Belize at nsidethe of morning the freshwater ofThursday, East Pond Augustat Jamaica27,1998, Bay I was Wildlife making Refuge, mywayBroad north Channel, alongtheQueens east Callforourfree itineraries •catalog of ., Co.,NY, lookingat shorebirds.The skywas overcast, but the lightwas excellent. I was bird- 100departures worldwideß ing alone,using my usual10x50 binoculars,with no telescope.Mixed-species flocks of 800-728-4953 shorebirdswere feeding along the edges of thepond. High tide would be at 12:56PM, and the severalhours before high tide are usually the best shorebirding at JamaicaBay, since the ris- gukles,o. ingwater in the Bayforces the birds into thepond-edge habitats. This seemed to be the case 9433 BEE CAVE ROAD, thismorning, as there were many birds along the shore. BUILDING 1, SUITE 150, At the northeastcorner of the EastPond, a trail leadsnorth awayfrom the pond and AUSTIN,TX 78733 -•'*- throughthe Phragmites.As I approachedthis final corner, I scannedall of the shorebirdsin FAX 512-263-O1 17 that cove.Virtually all werestints, a mixtureof Semipalmated(Calidris semipalmatus) and http://www.fieldguides.com ' Leastsandpipers (C. minutilla).Also present were a few LesserYellowlegs (Tringaflavipes). One somewhatlarger shorebird stood out; throughthe binoculars,it becamea Pectoral Sandpiper(C. melanotos),of whichI hadseen several already that morning. I lookedat a smallershorebird next to the Pectoral.Immediately, I knew I waslooking at somethingunusual. It wasdearly smaller than the Pectoral, but slightly larger than a nearby juvenileLeast. My firstdistinct impression, however, was that it wasvery dark, and that it showeda tremendousamount of contrast--thatis, dark feathers dorsally with almostwhite edges,giving a black-and-white"streaked" look. My next impressionwas of the bill, whichwas long, black, straight, and had a distinct downwardkink at thevery tip. It waslonger than any bill of anystint I hadever seen. Then, I quicklynoted the head--dark overall, with a blackishline through the eye, dark lores and a darkforehead, and a doublesupercilium. When this lastmark registered,1 knew thiswas an outstandingbird. But, thoughI had * 113 ShoreRoad, Glen Cove, New York 11542 <[email protected]> VOLUME52 (1998), ISSUE4 513 my copyof Shorebirdsby PeterHayman, John Marchant, and Tony therewere no otherpeople visible. I spoketo a birderI sawafter the Praterin my backpack,I forcedmyself to watchthe bird aslong as I bird flushed, David Klauber, who said that he had seen me leave the couldand to try to inchcloser for betterlooks. When I first spotted otherside, and that while I wascircling around a Peregrinehad come the bird, I wasabout 30 metersfrom it. By slowlywalking obliquely alongand flushed everything. He promisedto keepa doseeye out for towardsthe bird and doserto the reededge, I wasable to getwithin the Broad-billed and continued southward. about 10to 15 meterswithout unduly alarming it. At leastonce dur- I exitedthe northwest corner again and walked very quickly south ingthis stalking, the bird, along with all of theother shorebirds in the downthe highwayso that 1 cotfidreport the bird to the peopleat the cove, flushed, wheeled, circled over the water, and settled back down refugeheadquarters, as well asto the rare-bird-alertpeople, which I in the samespot and beganfeeding again. Peregrine Falcons had did.Several other birders, including Jamaica Bay regulars A10tt and beenharassing the shorebirdsfor severaldays here on the EastPond, MildredPenzer, and I spentthe restof the afternoonand evening and all morningthe flockshad been restless. alongthe north edgesof the EastPond hoping to relocatethe bird. Eventuallythe bird flushedbut did not return,instead landing We were tinsuccessful. Numbers of shorebirds overall were much furtherwest along the north edgeof the pond,at the mouthof the lowerthan they had been earlier in theday, which is the usual pattern outlet stream. The view was now more distant, but the bird was still at the EastPond on a fallingtide. dearly dark, contrasty,and stripe-headed.At this point, I jotted The followingday, Friday, August 28, 1998,I arrivedat the Refuge downsome quick field notes (Benner 1998). in themorning, intending to spendthe entire da• if necessary,trying While I waswriting these notes, however, the bird flushedagain, to relocatethe Broad-billed.High tide wasabout 45 minuteslater alongwith the othernearby peep. I had beenable to followthe bird than the day before,perhaps 1:45 PM.Hurricane Bonnie was also in the air the previoustimes that it flushed,due mostly to its overall passing,just to our south,and the outlyingdoud bandsintermit- darkness.I dearly saw both a definitewing stripe and a white-edged tentlytraveled from south to northover the refuge, though it did not darkrump and tail asit flew.This last time it flushed,however, I lost it in flight(it did not tendto staywith a flock,but wasa bit "off"from I scouredthe EastPond during the morning and early afternoon the wheelingsof any nearbyflock). Some of the shorebirdslanded but did not find the Broad-billedSandpiper. When I arrivedback at againin the area,others continued down the pond. When all had the Refugeheadquarters about 4 PM,I readin the log bookthat a landed,I wasunable to locatethe bird again.The entireperiod for birder,Don Davis,had reportedsighting the Broad-billedfrom the which I had been able to observe the bird amounted to less than five southend of theWest Pond, at about2 PM.I quicklydecided to walk minutes. alongthe WestPond to try to seethe bird aswell. I mademy wayto At thispoint, I lookedin my Shorebirdsbook and quicklyidenti- the southernend of the Pondand began scanning the shorebirds.I fied the bird as a Broad-billedSandpiper (Limicola falcindlus) in wasjoined shortly by two refugestaff members, Christopher Olijnyk eithermolting adult alternate plumage or in juvenalplumage. The and LennyLampel, but we wereunable to locatethe bird. bird apparentlydid not haveany of the rufousedges pictured in the The Refugestaff members drove on westand north aroundthe juvenal-plumagedbirds, and it alsohad a darkerhead and facethan WestPond, but I remainedin the vicinityof the southwestcorner, picturedfor a juvenile.But, it did not havethe darklystreaked breast scanningthe shorebirdsmingled in with the multitudeof 1oafmg of an adult in full breedingplumage, so I tentativelyidentified the ducks.I knewfrom past experience (since this is oftena goodspot to bird asa moltingadult. (This turnedout to be an error,I later dis- seeBaird's Sandpipers at thistime of year)that it is verypossible to covered,and my repeatingof thistentative identification of ageto the overlookbirds here. In thepast I havesuddenly discovered new birds hotlinesmay havehelped to add to the initial confusionregarding in flocksI wassure I hadlooked over several times already. And sud- the bird'sage.) denly,there it was--theBroad-billed Sandpiper, feeding in the foam During thisentire period, I wasalone. Several times I scannedin alongthe veryedge of the waterline.At first it wasworking its way all directionsalong the shorelines,hoping to seeanother birder, but eastwardalong the edge,but a few anxiousmoments of observation seemedto indicatethat it might remainin the area feedingfor a while.It wasalmost exactly 4:30 I quicklyturned and ran towardthe headquarters,hoping to catchsomeone before they all left for the day.I soonmet another birderwith a telescope,Patti Castle from Wiltshire,UK. He listened to my rapidtale and agreedto look for the bird in the cornerof the pond.I continuedonward, running and walking and running again, and foundone of the Refugestaff still at the headquartersbuilding. He called the others on the radio, and I ran back toward the bird, wherethey would meet me. When Christopherand Lenny arrived, l, andthey, and Patti,and KevinJones from Mineola,NY, and a couple of other birders whose names I never learned, found and watchedthe Broad-billedSandpiper at fairly dose range,in good to excellent light,for the next45 minutes.To addto our goodfortune, Paul had seenBroad-billed Sandpiper twice before in the UK and immediate- luvenile Broad-billedSandpiper with a juvenile Semipalmated ly agreedwith the identification.At this point,I tentativelyrevised Sandpiperat right, and a largersandpiper