Greetings All:
As those who follow my antics know, I am doing my annual listing and
photography game in Hockley County. As of this morning, I was missing but
three regularly occurring shorebirds (Black-bellied Plover, Pectoral
Sandpiper, Red-necked Phalarope) for the year.
I did manage to add Pectoral Sandpiper to the list this afternoon - as seen
but not photographed:(
When I first spotted the bird it was playing hide and seek behind some
foliage and none of the dozen or so pictures I took captured the bird
(though several are gorgeous shots of playa-side vegetation) before it flew
to the far side of the playa where it was out of reach even at 155X zoom.
I figured I would wait it out - as most of the shorebirds at the playa were
moving about quite a bit and I figured it would eventually move close
enough for at least a crappy shot. After about fifteen minutes of waiting,
the bird popped up and, as hoped, started flying back across the playa
towards me. Not wanting to rely entirely on the bird landing, I attempted
some shots in flight and, from the perspective of an eyeball through a
camera lens, all hell broke loose. Something massive moved through the
frame and then everything was gone. Almost immediately I got both eyes on
a Peregrine Falcon as it glided across the remainder of the playa, took a
perch on a berm, and started tearing something apart. I scanned the
entire shoreline, accounting for every previously tallied shorebird ...
except the Pectoral Sandpiper. I could only conclude that the third
Peregrine Falcon I had seen in the county during 2016 had taken the first
Pectoral Sandpiper I had seen in the county - before I could get a picture.
While I can't begrudge an honest, hard-working falcon a meal, I hope that
this is not the only Pectoral Sandpiper I see in the county this year:)
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
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