Hello Tweets,

If you happened to have looked up Solitary Sandpipers on eBird this morning, you may have been baffled by a red marker from the largely forested middle of Mercer Island. What's a Solitary Sandpiper doing there? The answer is simple: it was migrating at night.

Before I elaborate further, let me give you the backstory. It all started on the night of August 13th: from about 11:25 to 11:55 PM, I decided to stargaze and observe the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. And I was successful! Though light pollution and a minor haze of wildfire smoke coupled to blot out most of the faintest of them, I saw several shooting stars throughout my observation. But that was only half the fun!

Only a few minutes after I stepped out side and lay down to watch, I heard a bird call. "That's funny," I thought, "The birds should be asleep right now!" Moments later, a second bird call was heard - a buzzy chip. Slowly it dawned (or perhaps more accurately, midnighted) on me what was going on. When finally I heard the Swainson's Thrush nocturnal flight call that I had long waited to hear, a frog-like peep descending from the star-studded heavens, my heart about skipped a beat out of excitement.

That night, I heard Swainson's Thrushes, a single probable Chipping Sparrow, and a few chips that could very well have been Yellow Warblers. At times, their volume surprised me - it often sounded like they were calling beside me! I was relieved that I could hear the calls over the hollow din of late-night traffic on the freeways that surround Mercer Island on all sides of Lake Washington.

Since then, I have heard Swainson's Thrushes every night that I've listened, many ambiguous buzzy chips that came from either warblers or sparrows, a couple sparrow chirps, and a few distinctively high chips that could only have come from warblers. On Wednesday the 19th, I was stargazing with friends in my backyard when I heard a bizarre one twice. It started with a heron-like grunt, and ended with a starling-like whistle, all compacted into a one-second call. Grunt-whistle! Grunt-whistle! I only heard it twice, and discerned that the bird was flying to the southwest.

But passerines and UFAs (Unidentified Flying Avians) haven't been the only birds that I've heard. At about 11:01 PM on August 23rd (two nights ago), I had only been listening for a few seconds when I heard a shorebird call loudly, seemingly right above my head. It was a three part call: duee-duee-duee! I immediately had my suspicions as to the species, and using the wonderful tool that is Xeno-Canto, I quickly verified that I had indeed just heard a Spotted Sandpiper migrating over my yard at 11 o'clock at night. An unexpected surprise, and an unexpected yardbird!

Last night, I only listened in my backyard for a few minutes, and I heard pretty much nothing. So I went upstairs to get ready for bed. However, before soaring off to dream-land, I decided to listen through the bathroom window. At first, I only heard our local Barred Owl hooting. A couple Swainson's Thrush peeps were satisfying. I entertained the thought of hearing another shorebird, but decided, what are the odds of that happening?

Only minutes later at 12:04 AM, as I read an article about Spoon-billed Sandpipers on my phone, I heard a two-note call from the darkness above. Weet-weet! It was slightly higher and faster than the Spotted Sandpiper flight call I had heard the night before. Once again, I consulted Xeno-Canto, and found an exact match for the call I had just heard on the Solitary Sandpiper page!

http://www.xeno-canto.org/264962

I have been looking forward to my lifer Solitary Sandpiper, but I never expected to get it this way! As you could probably guess, I slept well last night after a successful session of nocturnal migration.

I guess that there are three morals to this story. One: in birding, it's always safe to expect the unexpected. Two: nature is grand! Three: If you haven't tried listening to nocturnal migrants, step outside tonight! Even if you live in the city, you can still hear the bird calls over the urban din. You never know what you might hear!

Good birding (in any wonderful way you enjoy it), Joshua Glant

Mercer Island, WA

Josh.n.glant at gmail.com



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