Hi Tweets

Today between 1155 and 1245 we had a BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER at Marymoor. We were starting to leave the main area to go over to the rowing club area and stopped to scan a large group of KILLDEER in the gravel area just near where you turn to go into the dog area parking lot. As I scanned the killdeer, this slim, smaller, sandpiper started moving thru the killdeer.

It was slightly smaller than the Killdeer and of a light brownish appearance, slim, clean of line with a shortish, sharp pointed bill (black) and bright yellow legs. The head had a suffusion of buff with a prominent dark eye, and the upper breast had a slight wash of buff. The underparts were clean. The scapulars were dark centered and either edged narrowly in whitish or buff giving a strong scalloped effect. The primaries were slightly longer than the tail. The whole plumage of the bird was clean and unworn, very crisp. This led us to believe we were looking at a juvenile.

Under the bright sunny skies, the bird foraged in the area most of the time. When a jogger came thru, most of the birds lifted and moved about five feet and then settled. The sandpiper also settled for a few minutes before beginning to forage again. We watched it until the whole group spooked (no obvious reason around) and lifted off and flew off to the north (unfortunately the Buff-breasted flew directly away from us and we could not see the underwings). A quick survey could not relocate them.

Ollie Oliver may have gotten a couple of pictures of the sandpiper.

Brian H. Bell
Woodinville WA
bellasoc at isomedia.com