One of the last birds that I thought that I could fairly easily pick up in my home area this year was the Pectoral Sandpiper. Yesterday evening, on my way to Harrisonburg, a city about 30 minutes away from here I stopped at Leonard's Pond, a great birding location to look for shorebirds. I scanned the pond. Killdeer, Killdeer, Killdeer, Killdeer, Killdeer, Killdeer, Killdeer, Killdeer! I counted 25. Then I noticed another bird, a largish sandpiper. I got my scope on it. Oh ye baby, that's a Pectoral! I saw the brown or whatever you call it extending way down the underside. No question! I was 100 percent sure but since I have trouble IDing shorebirds I was just a bit like "no other birder saw it, can I be sure?" but I was. And later I found out that an amazing experienced birder Allen Larner stopped by that pond last evening as well and saw a Pectoral in addition to a few Least Sandpipers which I thought I also saw..so I did get my shorebirds ID'd correctly.
Pectoral Sandpiper is year bird 364!
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