I led a Fairfax Audubon field trip to Hunting Creek this hot, sticky
morning and tallied 15 species of shorebird, the most I have ever
encountered at this spot. Highlights were a willet, a red knot, a
sanderling, and 2 Wilson's phalaropes. Other birds were 5 stilt
sandpipers, 3 white-rumped sandpipers, 2 spotted sandpipers, 7
short-billed dowitchers (including a juvenile in particularly sharp
plumage), 2 semipalmated plovers,and numerous pectoral sandpipers, least
sandpipers, semipalmated sandpipers, killdeer, greater yellowlegs, and
lesser yellowlegs. A brief moment of anxiety was when a laughing gull
chased down and caught what we thought was a hummingbird. It turned out
to be a cicada.
Marc Ribaudo
Woodbridge, VA
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