Thanks to all who responded with IDs/guesses/comments about the shorebirds at Eagle Bend! Several asked that I post the IDs, so they can tell if they were right or not.Since the photos are all titled with the date and a number, I'm using the number to identify which photo I'm referring to. If you go to the Eagle Bend set on my flickr pag<http://www.flickr.com/photos/24369838@N07/sets/72157635032397740/>e, the list starts with the first photo you see. 1574: Least sandpiper seems to be the consensus. 1675: Spotted, maybe winter plumage? 1688: No guesses yet 1713: One guess for semipalmated sandpiper, one guess for Least. 1746: Consensus is Dowitcher; no one so far ventured a guess as to whether it's short-billed or long-billed. 1758: Guesses have included Solitary or Yellowlegs. I was thinking Solitary originally. 1781: Spotted 1814: No guesses given 1853: Guesses included Least, Semipalmated and Western. So far, Western seems to be the consensus. 1858: Spotted 1969: Consensus is Pectoral For the non-shore birds: 1984: Red-winged blackbirds. Maybe young? Maybe female? Maybe young females? I had previous pictures of female rwbs that didn't seem to look like this (but that was back in the spring, so different plumage, I guess?) so I'd never have guessed that's what these were. Several though meadowlark, which had been my initial thought until I realized the beak was all wrong. 1987: Juvenile Starling. This was actually my initial thought because of the beak. But again, just last week, I was at Eagle Bend and saw a MUCH larger bird that looked TOTALLY different from this one that also turned out to be a juvenile starling, so that threw me. Interesting how quickly, and completely, their plumage can change. Thanks again to everyone for their input. If I get further confirmations or IDs on some that are still PBDKs, I'll give an update. (NOTE: PBDK is my own designation for unknown birds--it stands for "Pretty Bird; Don't Know." :D ) Sharon Monett Knoxville, TN On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 5:32 PM, Sharon Monett <sbm4him@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I spent a good chunk of the day on Friday, Aug. 9 at the Eagle Bend Fish > Hatchery in Anderson County. > > I saw quite a few different shore birds. Unfortunately, I am an extreme > novice when it comes to identifying birds, and shore birds (along with > sparrows) are particularly challenging to me. I just cannot seem to figure > out how to distinguish one from another, even with pictures. I'm more a > bird photographer than a "birder" anyway (at least, I know more about > photography than I do about birds!). I took pictures, but didn't get any > really good ones--except of killdeer. > > I'm certain of the killdeer, which there were plenty of, as usual. I'm > also certain that I saw at least three semipalmated plovers. Beyond > that--I'm *fairly* sure that I saw a couple of spotted sandpipers, several > solitarys and maybe a couple of least sandpipers. > > If anyone feels so inclined, you can go to my flickr set, > http://www.flickr.com/photos/24369838@N07/sets/72157635032397740/ and > help ID what the shore birds are (I didn't include the semipalmated plover > or the killdeer, since I knew those for sure). There are also a couple of > non-shore birds in the set that I don't know the ID for. I spent about two > hours on the Cornell allaboutbirds website, trying to differentiate and ID > the shore birds, before I gave up! Any tips on how to figure out how to ID > these birds for a novice? > > Other than the shore birds, one thing of note was that I did NOT see, the > entire time I was there (probably about 5 hours total) a single Great Egret > or Great Blue Heron. However, I saw evidence that something had gotten > ahold of, I believe, a Great Blue Heron. There wasn't much of it left, but > a wing and the legs. > > I did see about 4 green herons. Also starlings, pigeons and maybe doves > (can't really tell them apart either, from a distance anyway), Canada > geese--at least 50, a single female Mallard, about 9 or 10 double-crested > cormorants, a belted kingfisher, and a lot fewer swallows than on recent > previous trips. > > Sharon Monett > Knoxville, Knox Co. >