Southern New England Outdoor and Nature Site: Best Day Ever on the Mudflats

Friday, August 30, 2019

Best Day Ever on the Mudflats

In a day full of highlights, this Buff Breasted Sandpiper
was the prize

I've been going out to the mudflats in Ninigret Pond for most of my adult life. I remember taking my son out there when he was just a wee lad. I wasn't much more than a lad myself. Even in years when I didn't go birding much, I would find myself on the mudflats during late summer and early fall. I love it out there. Even though it is right behind a popular beach, it feels wild. There are always shorebirds out there from July through mid-September.

However, today was the mother of great days. I saw almost every single shorebird, both common and rare, that can be expected in Rhode Island during the fall migration. To put into perspective how great today was, if I hadn't gone birding all summer looking for shorebirds/gulls/ and terns and today was the first day all summer I went birding- I still would have seen every bird I chased since June 1 except for three (Roseate Tern, American Oystercatcher, American Avocet, and the tern and oystercatcher are very common at Napatree anyway)!

There is a small sandpiper that shows up about this time every year called a Western Sandpiper. As you can imagine, they are usually on the Western side of the U.S. Still some migrate down the East Coast in the fall. Last year, I had a great day where I saw five all at once. I thought that was amazing. Today, I can conservatively say there were at least thirty on the flats! I don't know how many individual Western's I got photos of. They were walking right up to me, too close to focus my camera.

Although, I love Western Sandpipers, the prize today was Buff Breasted Sandpiper. It is a larger beautiful shorebird. Labor Day weekend is when they migrate through. Jan and I got on the mudflats early today and she found it as I was launching my kayak.

Western Sandpiper

Besides the Westerns and the Buff Breasted, I found other great shorebirds. We had a Whimbrel and three Marbled Godwits. Both species are normally worth a chase on their own. This has been a great year for both species. Some years they skip right over Rhode Island.

We also had Pectoral Sand Pipers and White Rumped. There was a Caspain Tern hanging out with the gulls. We also had common species of shorebirds including Piping Plover, Semi-palmated Plover ,Least Sandpiper, Semi-palmated Sandpiper, Short Billed Dowitcher and the common species of gulls,terns and both species of yellowlegs. I stopped at Quonny Breachway this morning and also saw Black Tern and Forster's Tern.

I have been to the Breachway at least fifty times over the years. I've been at least ten times this year, and I have never had a day anything like today. It was spectacular. As you can guess, many photos below.