I barely missed high tide at Ledbetter on April 23. Noreen Dietrich and
Marilyn Gould were there and reported having seen a TOWNSEND's SOLITAIRE
nearby earlier. They had seen several Marbled Godwits as well.

On April 24 I was at the shorebird area in time. There were about 3,500
SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, 1 RED KNOT, thousands of WESTERN SANDPIPERS and
DUNLIN, about 250 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS, 4 GREATER YELLOWLEGS, and a good
scattering of LEAST SANDPIPERS and SEMI-PALMATED PLOVERS.

I was surprised to find three TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRES in various widely
separated locations on April 24. One in my yard was an odd site as it fed
from a post in a salt marsh. I don't recall ever having seen Townsend's
Solitaires at coastal lowland locations before. Something must be going on.

A SOLITARY SANDPIPER was at the little pond/puddle near the bay in my back
yard. Later in the day I saw it again at a vernal pool a few hundred feet
down Sandridge Rd. A MERLIN scared off the shorebirds that had been
gathering behind my house, and got one of the peeps in the process.

Jeff Gilligan.