point blank Buff-breasted Sandpiper

 We were lucky enough to have a juvie Buff-breasted Sandpiper land in front of us during Tuesday Morning Birding.  And I do mean RIGHT in front of us, click the link for the vid and the discussion!

No storms at New Buff

 A line of thunderstorms appeared to be bearing down on the northern half of the county this morning, but New Buffalo looked clear, so New Buffalo it was!

An solitary Avocet awaited the sunrise.  It's still mostly in breeding plumage, though you can see some winter gray coming into the face

The avocet dwarfed the Killdeer that walked past it, which in turn dwarfed an adult Semipalmated Plover who also enjoyed some morning sun.

I like the composure better of the bird on a rocky Great Lakes beach, but there was less sunrise at this point...

The most interesting birds were a couple mergansers which (8/12 edits after a communique from Adam lol italicized), after some study, turned out to be Red-breasteds Hooded's in eclipse juvenile plumage.  A few years ago there were a pair of eclipse Common Mergs (that I didn't get right) so hopefully take 2 was a success! (nope). Of course the pics are absolute garbage so I'm not leading off with them.  But the pink bills (and size in comparison to Mallards) crossed Hooded off the list. made me think they couldn't be Hooded and I must have rounded up their size in my mind.  The shape did seem a little off, but I couldn't get past the pink bills.  Sibley doesn't show young hooded with bright bills, but some internet searches pull them up pretty easily.  Common in eclipse would have a much stronger demarcation between the neck and the breast.

There's some much better phone-scoped video of the birds that shows the color a lot better than this really low light effort

a Tiscornia lifer

 though it looks like I eBirded a Short-billed at Tiscornia 10 years ago ... who knew?

A Short-billed Dowitcher flew in to Tiscornia with a willet this morning.

Both appeared to be adults with some worn breeding feathers, and a few very worn retained feathers from the winter.

The dowitcher's bill was the same length as the willet's, though a lot skinnier!

Interesting how the birds use them in very different ways though.

I somewhat screened the birds from a beachwalker who detoured around us ... into the gulls, who flushed, taking the sandpipers with...

birds!

 I mean, amazing what you see when you actually go birding!

Hopefully back in the saddle, though I'm sure I've made that promise before.

Tiscornia was pleasant this morning.  A willet came in briefly in the early morning light.

After a loop up to Klock a group of avocets also flew in from the south.

They turned out to be adults still very much in breeding plumage.

As opposed to one of the motley Lesser Blackbacks that have taken a liking to the local beachgoer's refuse.

Plover comps

 It was a good morning for plovers, with 3 Black-bellied and a young Golden Plover all at Tiscornia.  They spent most of their time on South Pier, but eventually they were flushed by pier walkers enough to come land in nice morning light on the beach.

You can see the long primary projection in these pics.  Pacific Golden-plover apparently has much shorter primary projection, but good luck ruling out an American that's missing a couple feathers...

I like the shadow behind the bird.  The next one is the opposite with a reflection

It flicked its wings after bathing in the surf.  It lacks the black armpits of the Black-belly's (one of the the young Black-bellys flew by too, but I only got dorsal views in focus)

Next pic has a young Black-belly.  Its bill is a lot heavier than the Golden's, it has much less contrast between the cap and the rest of the face, and the underparts are a whole lot less brown.

The adult was a fun study too.

Fun juvie shorbs

 Not sure how I've gone 2 weeks without getting some pics up; there've been some decent birds along the pier.  Red Knot, Stilt Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sand, and Black-bellied Plover have all been around.  While the Buffy and the Stilt Sand were very brief, the knot and the plover have been hanging out.

I finally caught the knot in good light yesterday.

They have a kind of dumpy silhouette, I'm a little surprised they're still in Calidris with all the peeps.

The young Black-bellied Plover has been around for a few days (though there may be a few).  In some lights it looks pretty buffy and I think was ebirded at least once yesterday as a Golden.

Black-bellied has a lot heavier bill (hard to see when it's on the other pier), much less of a pale eyestripe, and black armpits when it flies (impossible to see without seeing it fly).

Semi plovers are less of an ID quandary.

There were 3 on the pier this morning.

Finally a turnstone from last week...

avocets

Big shorebirds tend to show up following fronts and this morning was no different.  With clouds and west winds breaking the muggy heat we weren't terribly surprised to see an avocet land in front of the overlook.  I realized at that point I'd managed to leave the camera in the car, whoops.

I went back for it and about an hour later a flock of avocets appeared.

It was a mix of adults of both sexes (the males have straighter bills), just starting to get some wintry gray in their crowns.

 I don't know of a better visual representation of the whoof-whoof-whoof sound that a falcon's wings make when they bank close to you on a still day than the black and white secondary patterns of the avocets.

Finally a little yellow butterfly that caught my eye as the group departed. 

I looked it up, turns out it's called Little Yellow.  Go figure.

Neo-willets

I've gone out a few times to photograph the first comet (Neowise) that has a visible tail in recent memory.  This was at Tiscornia this morning.

A good sized storm front passed through about 36 hours ago.  I missed a flock of about 50 willets the evening it went through, and then a small flock of marbled godwits yesterday morning due to work, but there was at least one straggler willet this morning

Sanderlings are just starting to filter through.  Today was the first day with multiple.  One is still in pretty solid breeding plumage.

Red Knot in the sunrise

There's been a knot at New Buff the last couple days, I was there at sun-up this morning.  It was feeding actively aside from when killdeer or geese would fly by freezing it up from time to time.

The bird is a juvenile as evidenced by the small fresh scapulars.  This is the reddest I've seen a juvie, though it may also be the earliest I've had this species in fall and simply have fresher plumage.

There's still some algae left from whatever the last prey item was.

There were a handful of semi's around, but this Least zipped past the knot for a fun size comparison.

Honestly the water drops from the little wavelet hitting the algae distract more than they add interest to the next one.

One last pic from just before the sun rose.

Hopefully Baird's will be next!

thank goodness for Turnstones

Otherwise I don't think there'd be ANY shorebirds in Berrien county that have had a reasonable showing this spring.  They're a species I usually get in the spring, though is more reliable in the fall.  I've had them at least 3 times this year so far.  This pair was at Tiscornia earlier in the week.

The first bird looks to be an adult male.

The bird it was with was a lot farther behind in the moult with good numbers of worn retained winter feathers.

Whether that's because the second bird is female, younger, or both I don't know.

And the world needs grackle pics too!  (Though it helps if they contain a turnstone)...