Thanks to John Haas informing me earlier this week and also an alert from Rob Stone today, I was able to see a really nice collection of shorebirds at Wallkill River NWR after work this evening. I particularly wanted to see the Stilt Sandpiper, a bird that I have seen before but it has been a couple of years and I feel like I saw the bird today with different eyes. I also want to thank Tom Burke (I hope I spelled that correctly) who I met for the first time today. He gave me a crash course in shorebird identification and help me compile a really nice list today:
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Lesser Yellowlegs
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Dunlin
Stilt Sandpiper
Karen Miller met me out there a little later and we walked the Liberty Loop on our way to seeing 41 species. The highlight for me was my first of season Indigo Buntings. Here’s a Downy we had on the east side of the loop:
Matt,
Glad you got to see the Stilt Sandpiper, and get a nice shot of the bird. While I’m glad I was able to get a shot, yours is so much better and really identifiable. I checked ebird, this is the first stilt in all south east New York this year. Congrats again, John
Thanks John, it was great to see the Stilt Sandpiper and it was rewarding to feel like I took a small step towards shorebird identification. Matt