Stopped off briefly at the seasonal pond on 12th st NE on Smith Island this morning to check on shorebirds since the tide was high and all the sloughs brim-full. This last pond is nearly dried up, but still a bit of water. About a dozen Killdeer about, obvious as usual. Looking a bit closer I spotted a few Western Sandpipers, with even fewer Least Sandpipers mixed in.

But then I noticed a single bird noticeably larger than the peeps. Aha, a Pectoral Sandpiper I'll bet ! This would be just the spot for one. However this bird had black legs and a black bill. The more I looked the more droopy the bill looked. All the other marks , and the form, would indicate a Pectoral (although the border of the breast was'nt textbook abrupt).

Of course I was without a field guide of any kind (supposed to be working). Later I stopped off at home and looked through Sibley. I was leaning toward a juv. Dunlin, but it just did'nt fit the form of the bird. I really did'nt know what the darn thing was.

Just back home now with mystery solved. I bird with binocs so range is limited. Going back to the pond this afternoon the bird was still there, but I just was'nt close enough to see. Earlier I'd looked at the water -filled drainage ditch between the road and the pond and decided it was too wide to jump, and it mostly is, but now I just had to know what this bird was. Looking down the road I spotted a narrowing of the ditch and went down there and jumped it. Of course on my launch my jumping boot sunk about 6 " into the bank and following my leap dumped into the gooey ditch mud. My boot was now jet black.

Now I snuck up on the shorebirds. Very close I got. Close enough to see yellow on the uppermost leg of the Pectoral - the rest of the leg covered, along with the bill, in black mud. The gunk was so thick that it was drooping off the birds beak - giving the impression of curving bill. A nearby Western Sandpiper was similarly disguised. So was my boot.

As an additional note, shorebirding has been pretty good on Spencer Island this "fall" with the island now open to the tides. I tend to bird in spare moments without regard to tide tables, but when the time is right there's more shorebirds than there used to be, in my experience. Semi -palmated Plovers, both Yellowlegs, Dowitchers, Peeps, and Spotted Sandpipers ect. The Eastern Kingbirds are still about the far north end of the island, and I saw a single Peregrine last week also.




Jeff Gibson, Everett wa