Solitary Sandpiper

Many bird names are quite descriptive of the bird itself and provide a good clue to recognizing and remembering a particular species. Solitary Sandpiper is the name of this bird in the photo above, and it was indeed all by itself, which is its habit. My wife Jeanette spotted this Sandpiper yesterday while we were birding at Minto-Brown Island Park in Salem.  It took some work to come up with the identification, although our first thought was a Greater Yellowlegs, it seemed much smaller.  It wasn't until I got home and did some serious comparisons that I came up with the correct identification of a Solitary.  The only other one I have seen and photographed was in the Dallas City Park in May of 2013.  The most significant thing of yesterdays sighting at Minto-Brown is the last time an observation was reported there was March 25, 1992.  This is a migrating species, passing through in Spring and again in the Fall.  I suspect they stop here every year but just have not been reported. You can bet we will be keeping a sharper eye out for Solitary Sandpipers the rest of this month.