I spent about 2 hours birding the Necanicum Estuary, Seaside,
Clatsop, OR this morning while waiting for the sun to come out
so I could count butterflies (it never really did).

There were at least 3000 WESTERN SANDPIPERS, 100 or so LEAST
SANDPIPERS, 500+ SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, a BAIRD'S SANDPIPER
both GREATER and LESSER YELLOWLEGS and WHIMBREL on the many
flats.

I sat down on a piece of driftwood so I could comfortably
sort through the peeps. At around 12:00 I spotted an individual
with a short, straight, narrow bill... clearly not a Western and
not quite right for a Semipalmated Sandpiper.

And then I noticed it did not have webbing between the toes.

Description:
Slightly smaller than the many Westerns it was with. Short-necked
with round head and high forehead. The legs looked shorter than
the Westerns around it.

Head-
Forehead pale, crown brown-gray. Brown gray extending from
just in front of the eye, along the undereye and widening to
cover the auriculars and cheek. Weak supercilium ahead of
the eye, widening behind the eye. Nape below the back crown
paler gray than the crown and upper mantle.
Bill short, straight and black, not substantially thicker at
the base than the tip.
Back- Overall brownish gray with very little rufous
Mantle gray-brown with darker streaking, scapulars gray brown
with buffy fringes, centers not substantially darker.
Lesser coverts much like scapulars. Median and greater coverts
paler gray and plainer than lesser coverts or scaps.
Primary projection not noted.
Breast and Belly-
Throat, breast and belly white, smudgy buffy gray at the
pectoral and extending down along upper flanks.
Feet and legs-
bird was walking on packed, algae covered sand and feet could
be seen easily, no webbing was seen. tibia and upper tarsi
were slate gray. Lower tarsi and feet greenish gray.

My feeling is that the combined fieldmarks favor juvenile RED-NECKED
STINT. Lack of webbing between the toes should eliminate Semipalmated
Sandpiper. Overall dullness, short looking legs, details of the
face and head contradict Little Stint.

After watching it for about 10 minutes, a family of shrimp pickers
came out onto the flats and scared up the flock near where I was
sitting. The flock flew out to the center of the flats.



Birds seen:
Western Grebe 1
Brown Pelican 12
Pelagic Cormorant 8
Brandt's Cormorant 40
Double Crested Cormorant 4
Great Blue Heron 2
Mallard 4
Osprey 2
Semipalmated Plover 500
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 5
Whimbrel 4
Black Turnstone 1 (heard only)
Sanderling 8
Baird's Sandpiper 1
Western Sandpiper 3000
Least Sandpiper 100
stint sp. 1
California Gull 180
Heermann's Gull 45
Western Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Common Murre
Band-tailed Pigeon
Cedar Waxwing
Common Yellowthroat
Spotted Towhee
Song Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Oregon Junco

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com