From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
There was quite a congregation at Sweetwater Wetlands Park after the report of the Baird’s Sandpiper went out – I’ve posted a picture of the “twitch” here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/17896125790/in/dateposted-public/ – and we spent a lot of time looking at the bird through our scopes, zooming in, zooming out, conferring with each other. We all agreed it appeared to be long-winged, but Baird’s has a very thin, straight bill and the bill on this bird looked stouter than we’d expect, more like a Semipalmated’s. However there were four Semipalmateds hanging around in a flock, and this bird was not associating with them. The field marks were all uncertain, anyway: we were viewing the bird across the southern “moat” at a distance of a couple of hundred feet, too far to be sure of anything. But then, as we watched, an Osprey cruised over the bird at a height of only six feet or so, and it took off to the west, then made a U-turn, came back in our direction along our side of the moat, and set down on the mud just fifty feet away. At this distance all the details we couldn’t see across the moat were clear, and it became obvious that the tips of the primaries were even with the tip of the tail rather than extending beyond it. So it was a Semipalmated Sandpiper and not a Baird’s. I’ve noted the Semipalmated’s relatively long-winged structure before: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/3026633716/in/album-72157594281975202/
So what can we learn from this? Nothing, I hope! This is the way it’s supposed to work! If you think you have a rare bird, let people know! It’s much better to retract an ID later than to delay reporting it until you’re 100% sure and let a good bird get away.
Other sightings at SWP this morning included one or two Spotted Sandpipers, a Purple Gallinule sitting on a nest (with chicks, I was told), and four Black-necked Stilts sitting on nests. John Martin got a photo of one of the nesting stilts on the 21st: https://www.flickr.com/photos/thermalin/17862765378/
Still a few migrants moving through. Jerry Krummrich in Lake City and Andy Kratter in SE Gainesville both had American Redstarts in their yards yesterday.