Charlie Spencer

birdie 🦃 #570: 🟨🟥🟩⬛⬛⬛ https://birdiegame.net/ First shot got me in the family. No second guess. Third guess was half recognition and half luck. EDIT and I just realized the bird name in the final page is a link to the AllAboutBirds page for the species. Duh.

All the birds in question were feeding in the same way, as described my initial post, noticeably different from the plovers. If there's one definite Dunlin, I feel comfortable saying they were all Dunlin. Thanks, everyone!

Nothing about this bird 'feels' like Ring-billed-necked to me. What about something other than the two species originally suggested?

Thanks! In Dec, White-rumped and Purples are highly unlikely, and Pects are historically non-existent. Dunlins aren't common but are more likely than the other suggestions. We'll see if there are other opinions but so far I'll be leaving these as U/I.

Let's try this again: Lockwood Folly River, Brunswick County, southeastern NC. 08 Dec 23. There was still about an hour before full low tide, but these two came cruising through the oyster beds. I think there's less than 5 feet of water in that spot.

Ignore

Ignore

The extremely rare Short-billed Willet:

Between central SC and southeastern NC, I'm tripping over birds in the last ten days. Lifer and uncommon ducks at a wastewater treatment plant in Columbia, backyard rarities at both locations, strong numbers of the usual winter migrants. Is it just me or are others having good numbers for early December?

What are y'all feeding them in GA? I've never had one here with that much beige!

Yeah, I mistyped, and then I couldn't even get the banding code correctly typed on a consistent basis! @Kevin or @aveschapinas, would one of you change 'Sandpipers' and 'SES*s' in my original post to 'Plovers' and 'SEPLs', respectively? Thanks!

You're the first one to mention the colors! I've been using them when possible for several weeks. Sometimes I can't; the option doesn't appear when I'm using my phone or tablet, only on my computer.

That's me with Birdie about half the time. "Wait a minute, that's a WHAT?"

Lockwood Folly River, Brunswick County, southeastern NC. 08 Dec 23. The environment the wide shallow bank of a tidal estuary at low tide. There was a mix of a dozen Semipalmated Plovers and seven of something else. The mystery birds were noticeable for their habit of walking a step or two, probing the sand once or twice, and moving again. The probing appeared much less rapid than a Short-billed Dowitcher. There are SEPLs at the top and bottom for size comparison. The SEPLs were slightly smaller than the mystery birds. Is the center bird a different species from the rightmost bird? Not much I could do with the sun directly behind the birds across a damp, reflective mud flat. Thanks!

I'm glad to read 'Willet', since that's what I called an identical bird in southeastern NC two days ago.

How do you like it? They spoke favorably of it on a recent ABA podcast.

An excellent solo day when the birds just would not stop coming. This is probably my best checklist for this patch. I have photos of the unknown peeps I hope to identify. Those and the six additional birds from another list will bring the day's total to 43 species. https://ebird.org/checklist/S155949373

birdie 🦢 #569: 🟥🟨🟨🟨🟩⬛ https://birdiegame.net/

Good morning, Whatbirders! Going out west for Green-tailed Towhee

Golden-crowned Kinglet. My yard, Lexington County, central SC. 09 Dec 23. This is only the second one I've seen in the yard. The first, my lifer, was about six years ago. Of course the bird moved faster than I could focus. It would move, I'd find it, get the camera on it, click a desperation shot, attempt to focus, ... and it would be gone again. I did get some great shots of recently vacated branches

@dragon49, nice Impressionist art. Have you taken up watercolors?

They certainly aren't what I'm accustomed to from birds with similar 'last names'.

birdie 🦅 #568: 🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥 https://birdiegame.net/ I don't even know where these hang out.

eBird giveth, eBird taketh away. Blessed be the name of Cornell!

Maybe someone else has a theory. Maybe the Birding Gods decided you deserve compensation for putting up with F1?