With some "free" time this afternoon, we decided to chase a two "rare" birds
that had been reported earlier this week. The recently drained Mill Pond in
Windsor was quite productive. With water levels more than ten feet lower
than normal, there was lots of mud. As is often the case, exposed mud leads
to shorebirds. Unfortunately the best birds were in the far corner of the
pond so, even with a 50x scope, views were poor and identifications
challenging. I was rather conservative with the "peeps," but the one
Semipalmated was distinctively larger and paler. As for the yellowlegs, my
original identifications were confirmed when both species called.
At 4:15 pm the target species, a Great Egret, landed in a tree! A few
minutes later it was joined by a second egret and 5 herons on the mudflats.

The second target was a Yellow-breasted Chat that had been reported from
Dewey's Pond in Quechee. Despite playback, we were unsuccessful. However,
this species is notoriously secretive and is worth looking for. There was a
probable Blue-gray Gnatcatcher today as a consolation prize.


MILL POND-Windsor (77 acres), Windsor, US-VT
Aug 14, 2011 3:45 PM - 5:15 PM
Protocol: Stationary
18 species

Canada Goose  8
Wood Duck  16
Hooded Merganser  1
Great Blue Heron  5
Great Egret  2
Semipalmated Plover  2
Killdeer  3
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Solitary Sandpiper  11
Greater Yellowlegs  1
Lesser Yellowlegs  4
Semipalmated Sandpiper  1
Least Sandpiper  15
Belted Kingfisher  2

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://ebird.org/vt)


Spencer Hardy
Photos will be posted: http://theflatbill.blogspot.com/

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