My significant other and I spent about 90 minutes at Mann's Lake,
Nez Perce Co., Idaho, on Sunday, August 30, 1998. The weather was hot
(about 95) and sunny and the winds were calm. There were no anglers on the
lakes (wimps!) and only one remote-controlled airplane in the air space. We
were there from 1130 to1300 PDT and we ran out of time and sweat before we
ran out of shorebirds to identify.

1 Great Blue Heron
several hundred Canada Geese
1 white domestic goose
around a hundred eclipse plumage ducks including Mallards, teals, and
several Northern Shovelers
1 Cooper's Hawk
1 small raptor (American Kestrel or Sharp-shinned Hawk)
about 100 American Coots
Killdeer (too numerous to count)
Greater Yellowlegs (at least one probably more)
1 Spotted Sandpiper
4 JUVENILE SANDERLINGS (see description below)
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper (1)
Wilson's Phalarope (1)
Red-necked Phalarope (at least 2)
1 adult Ring-billed Gull
1 2nd year Herring Gull
Mourning Dove
Barn Swallow (around 100)
Northern Rough-winged Swallows
Brewer's Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbird

I didn't put numbers around most of the shorebirds because I didn't have
time to sit and try to identify all of the over one hundred birds that were
there and I didn't get to some of the back parts of the lake so my numbers
would be low anyway. I am still working on shorebird identification and the
Sanderlings took me most of the time I had there. I would have spent more
time but my poor James was wilting in the heat (he should have been there a
couple of weeks ago when it was 110!)

There were several species that we usually find there that were missing on
this trip: Western Grebe, Osprey, Northern Harrier, Dunlin, Say's Phoebe

JUVENILE SANDERLINGS: These birds were identified by a process of
elimination. The birds were extremely white on the face, neck, chest and
belly and. There was a small, mottled patch of black and white feathers on
the top of the head, a bright white supercillium and a small eyeline (also
black). The back was almost all black and white mottled with no hint of
brown, tan, buff, or rufous in any of the feathers. My first thought was
Black-bellied Plover in winter or juvenal plumage but the bill was more like
a sandpiper than a plover. The birds were larger and plumper than the
surrounding Westerns and Leasts and almost equal (slightly larger) in size
to the the Baird's but plumper. I estimated the size was about that of a
fat Dunlin but with a much shorter bill. After consulting National
Geographic and Peterson's Western Field Guides and the Shorebirds of the
World (or whatever Hayman et al is called), I concluded that juvenile
Sanderlings were the only shorebirds that are that black-and-white and
peep-sized. I know Sanderlings aren't terribly common inland but I remember
a few interior records (including several records from American Falls
Reservoir, Power Co., Idaho, which is much farther inland than Mann's Lake).

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to use my new information about telling
dowitchers apart since there were no dowitchers at all. Thanks to everyone
who sent replies to my request for information. I should have know the two
best references (Kaufman's Advanced Birding and Paulson's Northwest
Shorbirds) were already in my collection. Next time, I hope to have them in
my car and not my living room!

Cheers
Deb

Deborah K. Beutler
Department of Zoology
Washington State University
Pullman, WA

dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu