The "one-day wonder" Wood Sandpiper was just that. As reported here by
Michael Price, it was seen and confirmed by 3 observers on the afternoon of
Friday, July 21 at Pacific Rim National Park, Vancouver Island, but was not
present the next morning and remains "lost" to us.

Watch for it with Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs at sewage ponds, freshwater
marshes and the like. Look for a noticeable whitish supercillium separating
a dark crown from a white eye-ring. The legs were described as dull yellow-
orange (although dull greenish-yellow is apparently more typical of the
species). Slightly smaller than a Lesser Yellowlegs, but easily confused.
(I struggled long and hard with one in Namibia last October...lone
bird...nothing to compare it with, and in an area where Lesser Yellowlegs
occur, but infrequently).

With all the keen tweeters and others out there, it should show up again
somewhere on the coast, but then... Good luck.

Thank you, Ellen Blackstone, for the offer of a place for alien tweeters to
crash after the picnic. It's tempting, but I've been away too much and have
a daughter about to be married. A wedding is great, but a divorce, well...
I'll make the Second Annual.

Bryan Gates, Victoria, BC
bgates at assessment.env.gov.bc.ca