Hello Tweeters,

Late afternoon - evening today got to watch a Buff Breasted Sandpiper at the Cedar River Mouth!! What a beautiful shorebird. It was a lifer for me and a great bird for King County so it was awesome to be able to see it. I saw the bird earlier, and not being too great with shorebirds yet, I didn't know what it was and thought at first it might have been a red knot but really wasn't sure. My phone died and I didn't bring a guide book with me so at first I was just hoping to remember enough features about the bird to identify it later. Then I lost it and couldn't find it again. Fortunately, two other birders showed up (Curtis and Bobby) and started watching the birds with me and a little later it re-appeared to the left of us right off the dock about 20 feet away! We all got on the bird right away and started narrowing down the possibilities. We eventually settled that it was for sure a Buff-Breasted Sandpiper. They called two friends of theirs who were also able to drive down from Seattle and get great looks at the bird.

Not to scare people off, but we ended our birdwatching not long after two Peregrine's flew over and when they were flying away we noticed one of them had got something. After that we tried to relocate the Buff and couldn't, so both fingers crossed that the Buff was not the bird they made off with. There were a lot of other birds around so its not likely that's the one they got, but hoping other birders can get down there and relocate it.

Please post to tweeters if you are able to re-find this bird. Good luck!

Garrett Haynes
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