BIRDING TO THE EDG

This last Sunday, my girlfriend and I are driving around looking for a new mattress right next to Cherry Creek State Park in Aurora/Denver, Colorado. An email came into my BlackBerry informing that a gentleman had just found a possible Buff-breasted Sandpiper in the park. Naturally, we were driving my girlfriend's car, so we had to ditch the mattress searching and head home three miles to go get my 4Runner and head to the park. I was second on the scene to check out the pond. The main water had some Least Sandpipers and lots of Snowy Egrets, but as I turned the corner to check out the outflow ditch there was this gorgeous Buff-breasted Sandpiper feeding on the mudflats.

Now, I used to live in Iowa (on their main migratory path), but those of us from the Midwest know that you usually see them at a distance in some sod farms through a scope. With my Nikon EDG Fieldscope, I could see the extremely pale edges to the back feathers marking this bird as a juvenile. It has been a while since I had seen one, but I recall the juveniles having a real scalloped back. I could even see this with my EDG binoculars since the bird was so close. NE Colorado will sometimes see these birds, but they are increasingly rare as you get closer to the Front Range. Also, NE Colorado is not heavily birded so who knows
what gets missed.

Buff-breasted Sandpipers are not to be confused with anything else. They are tall like an Upland Sandpiper with a body structure like that of a Black-bellied Plover. However, the Buffy is slimmer than the plover. The bird has yellow legs, light-orange coloration on the head, neck, and breast. The bill is all dark with a tapering action as you get towards the bill. The area around the eye is without streaking giving the bird a spectacled look. The face is clean with buffy coloration and there are fine streaks on the crown, back of the neck, and mantle as well. The head is small giving the black eye a HUGE appearance!

Besides all of that, the habits of the bird are even more interesting. The bird moves fast and bobs it's head kind of like a Rock Pigeon. They are very active feeders. I normally would expect them in an open field of short grasses, but this bird needed a rest I guess. This guy is on it's way to the Pampas in Argentina, Chile, and southern Brazil where they winter. I certainly hope this young'n can get there safely. As I am writing this post the bird may still be at Cherry Creek and I plan to go check later today to get some more photos if I can.