At first glance early this afternoon, nothing but two or three Killdeer. Then a well-camouflaged spot tucked into a groove on a log moved and became a Western. A careful scan of every "stone" revealed eight mostly hunkered down Killdeer, but finally one moved, and a juvie BAIRD'S sandpiper followed it out of a depression in the gravel. When I called back two departing birders to see it, it quickly vanished, of course, but eventually reappeared for us in the same spot, near no apparent hiding place. After a fifteen-minute break to walk some of the antsiness out of Harold (my bird dog,) the Baird's was nowhere to be found, but two Leasts and another bright juvenile Western were actively foraging on the outermost sandbar, and a LB Dowitcher was much closer, probing an area of shallowly submerged sticks.
Though I tried the away-and-back trick one more time, no Pectoral Sandpiper appeared.
Moral of the story is that when luck fails, perseverance still works.
Jeff Bryant
Seattle
jbryant_68ATyahoo.com