Dowitchers Already?

It was time for a break.  I'd been sewing all day and my fingertips were sore with needle punches and my back needed some loosening up.  I headed over to the Wheeler Marsh just as the tide peaked.  To make the trip quick, I put in at the Wildlife Refuge launch,

The weather was 80 degrees with a sunny haze and light wind.  

Two Short Billed Dowitchers

I headed into the secret shortcut but turned down river instead of following the usual path up.  This took me close to the central marsh high ground, a patch of phragmite reeds that probably survives because it is six inches higher than the rest of the area.  Immediately, I flushed a Black Crowned Night Heron and a few Yellow Crowned Night Herons, some Mallards, and a few Willets.  But as I meander through the tighter channels heading down the marsh, it gets better.  I flush several more Willets, more than I normally see in the Wheeler.  Then I flush thirty medium sized Sandpipers.  Four Willets join in with them as they fly a formed flock.  They stay airborne for over five minutes, circling and crossing the central marsh a few times before settling.  As I continue, I flush more of the Sandpipers, usually in groups of 6 to 10.  They're very hard to identify as they disappear into the spartina when they land.  I finally get a blurry photo showing a straight to slightly upturned bill.  Then, I get lucky and finally get a good flight photo.  They are Short-Billed Dowitchers.  This is migration territory for them with nesting grounds near Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Pacific Coast in the same latitudes, and winter grounds on coasts south of here as far down as South America.  I read up and learned that Short-Billed Dowitchers are early migrators...so, here they are.  Of note, the "pro" bird watchers haven't counted this many of them in recent days. That may be because they are counting from land and I am only spotting the dowitchers by flushing them...and I am several hundred yards from shore.

Juvenile Yellow Crowned Night Heron

I also spot a juvenile Yellow-Crowned Night Heron...just one of those.

I finish up by circling up and through narrower interior channels before.