Friday, July 9, 2021

Short-billed Dowitcher at St. Luke's Anderson Campus ~ July 9, 2021

Jon Mularczyk forwarded some photos of a dowitcher that Kurt Zimmerman had found earlier at the retention pond area behind St. Luke's Anderson Campus. I headed down there and checked the pond, but the heavy rain that we had the night before had filled it to where there was no muddy shoreline. Adam Miller arrived and, after looking at the photos, we realized that the bird was photographed along the walking path. As we headed over there, I looked to the right and the bird was there, walking along the grass by the edge of the field. We watched and photographed it as a few more birders showed up. It favored a small rain puddle where it was pulling out earthworms and chowing down.

A couple hours later, people walking the area with their dogs caused the bird to make a few flights around the pond, but it eventually ended up back at its favorite puddle. When I left, the bird was still there.

After getting back home and processing my photos, I agree with others that this was a 'hendersoni' Short-billed Dowitcher.

No comments:

Post a Comment