[va-bird] Upland and Baird's Sandpipers, more Buff-breasteds, etc.

 
The northeasterly gales and rain continued today in Northampton County, to 
the delight of few but birders, and Tom Saunders and I did a post-work loop 
around Capeville again (1700-1900), with the following happy results:

Solitary Sandpiper 2 (none yesterday)
Buff-breasted Sandpiper 16 (but several of these in new fields; one apparent? 
adult)
Pectoral Sandpiper 86
Semipalmated Sandpiper 220
Least Sandpiper 325
Baird's Sandpiper 1 (juv.) (none yesterday)
White-rumped Sandpiper 51 (none yesterday!)
Western Sandpiper 9
Wilson's Phalarope 1 (none yesterday)
Ruddy Turnstone 6
Black-bellied Plover 96
American Golden-Plover 1
Greater Yellowlegs 9
Lesser Yellowlegs 298
Semipalmated Plover 166
Killdeer 27
Upland Sandpiper 1 (hoorah; none yesterday)
Short-billed Dowitcher 6
Stilt Sandpiper 3 (adults)

Also seen were:
Mallard 1
White Ibis 3
Gull-billed Tern 2
Bobolink 120
Eastern Kingbird 12
 
Despite all this weather, call notes of migrating birds have been heavy both 
of the last nights and even this morning early; Wood Thrushes are currently 
going over, and a few Veeries, plus warblers.   Very exciting weather.   Most 
of 
the shorebirds were near the roads, and again the Buff-breasteds put on an 
outrageously cooperative show.   Opportunities to compare adult and juvenal 
plumages, and variation within both, has rarely been better - anywhere in 
Virginia, I think, at such close range, in such variety of species.   Pity the 
rain 
and the wind and cloudy skies make photography so tough, as the birds are so 
close to the road!

Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA

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