Tweeters,

Like Scott Atkinson, I beg to differ from Steve Mlodinow's claim that
tideflats at Jensen Access in Skagit County would be a "highly
atypical habitat" for Stilt Sandpiper.

I agree with Steve that, by and large, Stilt Sandpipers tend to prefer
sewage ponds and non-saline habitats in fall migration. In the
Vancouver area, which I have birded since the late 1960s, at least 90%
of our Stilt Sandpiper records are from such localities. However,
Stilt Sandpipers are seen regularly along the shoreline of Boundary
Bay. A place where this species has turned up regularly is just
outside the Boundary Bay dyke between 96th and 88th Streets, where,
because of a pumping station used to drain ditches in nearby farmland,
there are often pools of water (likely brackish rather than truly
saline) even at low tide. This place looks somewhat like the Jensen
Access area.

I also disagree with Steve that Semipalmated Sandpipers avoid salt
water on the West Coast. Some of our highest counts of Semis have been
on Boundary Bay. Semis do not tend to forage IN the water as much as
Westerns, but don't tend to forage as far away from water and in weed
clumps as much as Leasts do.

I suspect that Steve's questioning of the Jensen Access Stilt
Sandpiper was more because of the early date for a juvenile than
because of the habitat.

With all due respect to Steve, some of us have been birding on the
West Coast much longer than he has, and it is a bit risky to base
broad statements about habitat preference in shorebirds totally on
one's own personal experience ("I have only once seen a Stilt
Sandpiper on a tidal flat anywhere on the west coast...").

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops and Delta, BC
contopus at home.com