Marbled Godwit in RI, and Wilson’s Phalarope in CT, August 2014

With a free day coming up I started to review possible statebirding possibilities, and my thoughts quickly went to a very reliable Wilson’s Phalarope that had been seen for several days in Guilford, CT.  And with a little more digging I found a couple reports of a Marbled Godwit at Quicksand Pond in the southeastern corner of RI in Little Compton.  Though since the Godwit reports were a bit cryptic (for instance not saying where the bird was being seen at Quicksand Pond), and the most recent report was a couple days old, I was a bit worried about whether to give that one a try.  But since I had some time available, I decided to put a few miles on the car and try for both birds. 

I arrived at the Little Compton beach just west of Quicksand Pond at about 7:30, early enough to not have to pay to park at the town beach.  Now the challenge was to try to locate the Godwit in this very large pond with considerable mudflats.  As I approached the southwest corner of the Pond I noticed several shorebirds along the edge.  I did a quick scan and found several Dowitchers and a few peeps, but nothing else of interest.  Then I looked to the east and found several more peeps, but still no large shorebirds.  I didn’t see any other mudflats in the immediate area, and started to worry about my chances.  Then farther off to the northeast I noticed a distant flock of maybe 200 gulls standing in shallow water.  I scoped through these birds and got brief glimpses of a smaller, darker bird walking among the gulls.  After a few seconds it came out into the open and it was the Marbled Godwit.  I ran into a couple local birders a couple minutes later and they said the Godwit had not been seen the day before.  I guess I got pretty lucky.  That was number 314 for me in RI, and my fourth New England state for this species (see my statebird map below).  I’ve now seen it in most coastal states in its migration and wintering range, many of the states in its inland breeding range, and a few inland states as a migrant.

I spent a little more time at Quicksand Pond looking for other shorebirds and found a number of peeps near the southeast corner close to the outlet of the pond.  I was about to leave the site when I looked up and noticed a Royal Tern fly right over my head coming in off the ocean.  I watched it fly around the northern stretch of the pond for a while but then lost it in the distance.  Not a new statebird for me, but a good bird for RI.

I headed back to the car and then drove west to Guilford, CT to try for the Wilson’s Phalarope.  This bird had been seen very reliably right along the road at the edge of Leete’s Island saltmarsh for several days, and was seen that morning, so I was quite optimistic.  When I arrived another birder was already there with a scope.  She said she had just arrived and hadn’t found the bird yet.  I wasn’t too disappointed (yet), and started to scan the flats.  There were numerous peeps and a few Yellowlegs, but no Phalarope.  I continued to scan, picked out a Baird’s and pointed it out to the other birder, but still couldn’t find the Phalarope.  Now I was beginning to worry since all the posts had mentioned how cooperative the bird had been right along the road.  I started to look farther out in the marsh and realized that there was quite a bit of habitat with good numbers of peeps.  Maybe it was just out of sight at this point.  I scanned some more and a medium-sized shorebird with a white rump flew through my scope field.  I watched it land and it was indeed the Wilson’s Phalarope.  I got this phonescoped photo of the bird as it fed.

 

That was number 312 for me in CT, which was my last New England state for Wilson’s Phalarope – my 227^th species in each New England state.  And in my statebird map (below), I’ve seen this species throughout most of its normal range in the west and a number of eastern states as a rarity.