I spent the day thinking about my ID of this bird, so I made it back out to Skinner Lane tonight to try and get a second look. Luckily, the bird was present. I watched the bird in my scope for a long while when finally all the shorebirds lifted up. This gave me a chance to bird in flight – revealing black armpits. This leads me to believe the proper ID of this bird is likely a Black-bellied Plover. I feel very fortunate that this bird stuck around so I could get another look and hopefully get it right. This has been yet another learning experience on the road to hopefully becoming the birder I aspire to be.
Matt,
Well done. You should already be pleased with your skills as a birder, they are very good! As you know, I didn’t get this one right initially either. Glad you had a chance to see it again. John Haas
Thanks for the kind words John, I certainly was happily surprised to see that bird again last night.