A late afternoon trip to Great Meadows, hoping to refind and add to the things from Thursday. Almost did exactly that.
The Little Blue Heron was in pretty much the same spot. Stopping to get a good look at that, we found a whole bunch of sandpipers up close. Scanning through, I quickly picked out one that looked a bit different. I was about to say dowitcher but the bill looked a bit short and the posture was a little off. It took some time (and another birder) to be convinced, but it was a juvenile Stilt Sandpiper, only the 2nd time I’ve had one in the county (3 were here in September 2004).
A few distant shots:
On the right
On the left
And on the left
Satisfied, we moved on. At the grates, Jonathan (the other birder) quickly called out an interesting plover, which turned out to be a molting American Golden-Plover, also a fairly rare bird in the county.
We continued to the last opening, where there was far less than there had been. It was starting to look a bit stormy, so we turned around and started to work our way out. Partway back, we found a Common Green Darner finishing off a Blue Dasher (not quite another darner). It was quite windy, but with a bit of effort I got a few shots:
Further on, the Little Blue was right out in the open:
And almost back to the car, a darner flew by and then stopped to hover. It was patrolling a very small area and would pause at each end, so I actually managed a few shots:
Being able to freeze the motion was great as I could check the pattern and confirm it as a Lance-tipped Darner. I guess flight photography is mostly finding a cooperative subject.
Not a bad afternoon at all.
