Hi Tweeters,

I made a somewhat insane dash to Westport to finally
see Rock Sandpipers today that were reported on
Tweeters by the Sullivan's and on the Birdbox by
Micheal Fleming yesterday. I've looked for them
before and now realize why I probably have missed them
in the past. They are way smaller than I expected.
It would help if I did more than just look in the
field guide to see how long they are in comparison to
their buddies. They are only 1/4 inch shorter than
Black Turnstone but they weigh only half as much. The
other "rock-pipers" are very bulky in comparison.
Also the birds at Westport are probably all juveniles
since they were much more patterned and colorful then
the gray nonbreeding adult. Another learning curve on
my part, looking for gray and got buffy edged dark
feathers with a lighter head and face than the
nonbreeding adult. Today there was about 8 of them
and about 30 each of Surbirds and Black Turnstones.
It was nice to see all three in a shaky (windblown)
scope for comparison.

Kathy
Roosting in South King County



____________________________________________________________________________________
Low, Low, Low Rates! Check out Yahoo! Messenger's cheap PC-to-Phone call rates
(http://voice.yahoo.com)