Sugar House Pond, 7/14/22

A brief stop today at the Sugar House Pond on FM 1425 north of FM 107 yielded quite a few shorebirds.  Just a narrow stip of shoreline around the pond but it was being used by hundreds of postbreading adults on their way south in every kind of ragged breeding plumage imaginable.  Peeps were represented by rusty Western Sandpipers with their long bills.

Short billed grayish Semipalmated Sandpipers.

And brown Least Sandpipers with their yellowish legs.  But they were so muddy leg color was hard to determine.

I didn't have time to count so I went with a rough estimate of 100 Stilt Sandpipers.  Notice the Long-billed Dowitcher photo bomb.

And I went with a 100 Lesser Yellowlegs also.

A flock of four Wilson's Phalaropes contained a juvinle plumaged bird along with some funky worn males.

Here's some mixed flight shots.  They make for great opportunities to compare plumages.

So it's time to hit the mudflats in 100 plus degree temps and find something good.  The famous birder who penned "Real birder's don't wear white" was sitting in the shade watching hummingbirds and not plying the flats in stifling heat.  Yes we do wear white!