I’d just gotten home after birding this afternoon when I saw that I missed a call from Karen Miller. I called her back and she told me that the Mearns Bird Club outing had a bird this morning that was later identified (through photos) as a STILT SANDPIPER. The location was at what I refer to as the Glenmere Pond (because it’s just right up the road from Glenmere Lake), but I think most birders call it Beaver Pond. It’s on Pine Hill Road in Chester just south of Glenmere Road. Anyways, I ran for the bird and joined Kathy Ashman, who had seen the bird but it was currently not visible. We shifted position and relocated the bird quickly – it was feeding in its sewing machine style, next to a Lesser Yellowlegs.
Tom Burke and Gail Benson joined us shortly after, as did Karen Miller and Diane Bliss. We mostly enjoyed scope-distance views of the bird, but then all the shorebirds picked up and the Stilt relocated in a much closer position; allowing for much better looks and some halfway decent documentary photos. I was thrilled to finally get a good shorebird in our area – it was the bird that saved August 2019.
It was nice to have a little birding excitement in an easily accessible location. The details of the feather pattern in the photos make it so much easier to differentiate between the Lesser Yellowlegs and the Stilt Sandpiper. Not only do I need to grow up, but I need new eyes! Lol! Good to see you yesterday, Matt.
Lol, we could all use some new eyes, I think. Save Kyle maybe. And while you need to get a little taller, we could all grow up a little too, ha ha. Good to see you too, and yes, it was great to have some birding excitement and I was saying the exact same thing to someone – how nice to bird in such an accessible place. Matt