Subject: [Tweeters] redshank
Date: Dec 1 18:49:36 2014
From: Jeffrey Bryant - jbryant_68 at yahoo.com


First, thank you Carol for posting some details--I just got home to see that the messy android/tweeters interface garbled the message...Today was my first day back in town, and I was eager, though not hopeful, to see a Spotted Redshank. ?After two productive but redshankless hours at the Hayton Reserve, I headed over to Jensen access a few minutes' drive to the west, to see if the rising tide had sent it there. ?Got there about 12:35, and within ten minutes, the bird flew in (alone) ?from the southeast and landed on the log Carol described, displacing several Dunlin. ?The bird is about the size of a Greater Yellowlegs, but as it flew in, I could see the red-orange feet poking out behind the tail. ?Also evident was the dowitcher-like rocket-shaped white patch extending from the rump well up the back. ?It stayed on the log for 2 or 3 minutes, wandering back and forth and annoying the Dunlin. ?While there, it was perfectly lit, and clearly showed contrasty white supercilium (more so than either yellowlegs,) and bright orange-red lower mandible, legs and feet. ?mantle was gray, and less obviously patterned than our tringas. ?In my excitement, I did not wait for and note a good look at the underside, but my memory says it was fairly clean white, consistent with an adult SPRE. ?It flew off to the Northwest, disappearing behind vegetation before I could get up far enough to see how far it went. ?It called as it took off, giving a nasal but musical "chuweet," with the first note being rather Lesser Yellowlegs-y, but the second note rising. ?There is no access to the northwest, or I would have tried to refind it.After fumbling with annoyingly small buttons with cold hands for at least fifteen minutes, then calling my husband to send the message for me, I heard a Greater Yellowlegs call, and turned around to find it. ?Three tringines were flying in from the northwest. ?Something out there had flushed a lot of shorebirds, mostly Dunlins. ?As the three approached, I again saw the orange-red feet trailing one of their tails, while the other two showed yellow toes. ?All three flew past the log, and after fifty yards or so, wheeled around and returned to the northwest, disappearing around a "wall" of pilings there.I waited until after three, during which time there was much movement among the shorebird flocks, but mostly too far out for my cheap scope to be much help. ?At least three thousand Dunlin, a couple dozen Black-bellied Plovers, a couple of Killdeer and one Greater Yellowlegs were all the shorebirds I saw in this time.
Also of interest was a Swamp Sparrow at Hayton Reserve, in the cattail marsh behind the hedgerow of Himalayan Blackberries lining the entrance road. ?behind the second triangular sign there is a decent access through the brambles, and here is where I heard the chip notes, then saw the bird fly from cattail to a hawthorn tree, giving good views.
jeff bryant
seattle
jbryant_68 AT yahoo