hello tweets.

i just read jim flynn's account of his solitary sandpiper
and realized that i should probably tell you all more about
my solitary sandpiper, too.

i agree with jim's observation about the coloring of the
legs. according to the nat'l geo guide, the "olive legs
distinguish solitary sandpiper from lesser yellowlegs."
when i read the word "olive," i think of green olives
with pimentos in them. my bird did not have olive-green
legs in that sense at all. it did have yellowish legs
but the yellow color was much duller than the greater
yellowlegs' leg color (they very politely fed near this
bird and, in doing so, gave me a wonderful color comparison).
again, as jim mentioned, the base of the bill was also much
yellower than the nat'l geo guide led me to believe,
while the terminal half of the bill was a darker color.

the bird did bob its tail as it fed, although not as often
as i had thought it would, based upon the nat'l geo guide
description. the bird's back was a dark greyish-brown color
that was almost the same tone as killdeer, which also were
so polite as to stand next to my bird for a close comparison.
when the solitary sandpiper moved into direct sunlight, the
tiny cream-colored dots on its plumage were readily apparent,
and the fine dark-colored bands near the wings were also
revealed. otherwise, in the shadows, this bird appears to
be a charcoal color on top, with a clear white belly, and
a bright white eye-ring. even in the shadows, the bill
still looks bicolored, though.

my bird was not as skittish as jim's bird was. i was able to
approach it fairly closely, but it did take me some time to
do so (i was being cautious; i knew it was something special
and so i didn't want to scare it away in my eagerness to see
it!). i approached the pond a step or two every few minutes
and sat down for a ten minute (or so) look, and then crept
closer and sat still for more observations. i ended up about
50 feet from the bird, perhaps even closer, without flushing
it. the bird also wandered closer to me after i had sat still
for some length of time (maybe it thought i was a rock?),
giving me still better looks at it. the greater yellowlegs
that were nearby were more skittish than the solitary
sandpiper was.

i first saw this bird around 615pm tonight and watched it for
at least an hour before moving on, reluctantly. i rechecked
the bird at 800pm, before leaving the montlake fill, and the
bird was still there, eating dinner, as i soon would be.

regards,

Deborah Wisti-Peterson email:nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~nyneve/
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