Little Stint, Chatham, MA, August 2017

Little Stint is a great bird for MA – in fact it’s a great bird anywhere in the Lower 48.  So daily reports of a seemingly reliable bird from Morris Island in Chatham should have gotten my attention.  But despite how rare it is, I hadn’t tried to pursue it for two key reasons – it was discovered while I was focused (in fact obsessed) on trying to get out to see the Bridled Tern in CT (including two unsuccessful boat trips), plus I had thought you needed a boat to get to the Stint’s offshore location making it a logistical challenge.  Then there were the slight complications that I discovered that most of my MASSBIRD e-mails were going into my spam folder and my MA eBird Needs Alerts had been turned off.  So I wasn’t getting many of the regular updates on the Stint, or any other rarity that might be found in MA. 

But then while chatting with another birder as we watched the Common Shelduck in NH, he mentioned he had just seen the Stint.  And it simply required a short walk along the shoreline; no boat was needed.  The next morning I started to wonder if I should try for the Stint after all.  The problem was my window of free time was limited to just that day, and I had planned to head out on the Cross Sound Ferry that afternoon for a second try at Cory’s Shearwater on Long Island Sound (in CT waters of course).  In fact I had already made my reservation on the ferry, though with a bit of research I realized I could cancel the reservation.  I started to piece together directions for finding the Stint, and soon realized tides were a key issue – the bird was principally only showing up at mid to low tides.  I checked the tide cycle and high tide that day was at 11:30 AM, so an afternoon visit would work well. 

With Little Stint being a lot rarer than Cory’s Shearwater, and presumably more likely as well, I cancelled my ferry reservation, and planned my 2 ½ hour drive to arrive in Chatham at about 12:45 PM – more than an hour after high tide.  My hope was that I would find the bird on the falling tide soon after I arrived, and be able to start my drive home shortly thereafter.  It was a summer Sunday after all, and departing the Cape would be a nightmare if I couldn’t get out quickly that afternoon. 

As I headed to Chatham I checked my e-mails a couple times hoping for positive reports from the low tide that morning, but there were no reports at all.  Was no news bad news?  Then as I got onto the Cape I saw that Route 6 was already backed up for 5 miles – and it wasn’t even Noon yet - yikes.  I was starting to have that sinking feeling, though I tried to remain positive.  Then I remembered the best access to the bird required parking in the lot at the Monomoy NWR headquarters.  I remembered that that lot is pretty small.  So on a nice Sunday beach day would there even be a place to park?  Sure enough as I got to the lot it was completely full, with two other cars circling along with me looking for a spot.  But just a minute later a couple walked up from the beach into the lot and I was able to take their parking space – things were looking up.

The best directions I found on-line said to take the stairs from the lot down to the beach, and then walk about ½ mile west of the Morris Island access to areas of marsh grasses and mudflats.  Minutes later I was descending the steps and found 3 birders on the landing down below.  They had been there all morning, and perhaps had a sighting of the Stint, but wanted to wait till the lower tides that afternoon to get a better view.  And apparently that was the only possible sighting that morning.  I looked to the west and the tide was high enough that no beach was exposed at all.  Then a birder appeared in the distance wading toward us from the west – he had been out in the proper area but there was still no exposed mudflat.  So we all decided to wait a bit longer for the tide to drop further. 

At 1:30 (2 hours after high tide) we all decided to head to the west, requiring just ankle deep wading in one area.  We got to the area where the bird might have been spotted that morning, but there was still next to no habitat.  Finally at 2 PM there was a bit of mud, and a couple peeps and Semi Plovers flew in.  The peeps were mostly the expected Semi Sands, but then I spotted one bird that was smaller and rustier that the Semi Sands, and had dark legs.  I pointed it out to another birder, but we both eventually decided it was just a Least – in the harsh lighting conditions it was very difficult to see the pale legs (plus the overhead sun meant the bird’s body was shading its legs making them look dark).  And there were no white braces on the scapulars – a feature that was quite visible in most of the pictures of the Stint.  We were trying too hard…

We waited a bit longer at this spot but still had no more than a dozen peeps and Semi Plovers, even though more flats were now exposed.  Sure didn’t seem very promising.  I then remembered one post mentioning that the bird was seen “past a creek”.  We hadn’t come to a creek yet, so I decided to head a bit further west and sure enough came to a small creek discharging water into the bay from the nearby saltmarsh.  And up ahead was another mudflat with perhaps 50 shorebirds.  Maybe this was the spot.

I set up my scope at this western location, and started to scan through the shorebirds.  There was better diversity here, including a Short-billed Dowitcher, a pair of Yellowlegs, and a Black-bellied Plover mixed in with the Semi and Least Sands and Semi Plovers.  But no Little Stint.  Then on another scan I spotted a Buff-breasted Sandpiper on a drier part of the beach – a nice find but still not the target.  More scans yielded presumably the same birds over and over again. 

It was now 3 PM and I was starting to think our target was going to be a no-show.  And my mind started to wander - think how awful the traffic would be getting off the Cape.  Then all of a sudden I picked up a peep that was brighter – so bright in fact that it seemed nearly orange.  Obviously much brighter than the Leasts that I had earlier tried to turn into the Stint.  Within seconds I could see the rusty cap and truly dark legs.  Then it tipped to feed and I saw the white braces.  Little Stint!  It must have just flown in.  I got the birder next to me on the bird, and seconds later the other birders spotted it as well.

Over the next few minutes I got a couple barely passable phonescoped photos of the Stint.  And although these shots don’t do a good job capturing the rusty color of the bird, I was lucky enough to get a couple pictures of the bird next to a Semi Sand (on the left) showing the Little Stint’s white braces.

As we all headed back to our cars we compared notes regarding our upcoming drives to head home.  The other birders were from the central coast of Maine, Pennsylvania, and Ontario.  And one birder we passed heading out to the spot had just flown in from Florida.  Although my drive back would be a long one, even with the extra 30 minutes to get through the 7 mile backup getting off the Cape, my trip home would be the shortest of them all.

Little Stint was #413 for my MA list, and the 517th species I’ve photographed.  But it was not a lifer – my only other Little Stint was in NH in 2003, in the same pool the Common Shelduck has been frequenting.

And as for that missed chance for Cory’s Shearwater in CT – as of this writing, no more Cory’s have been reported from the ferry.  I’ll just have to try for them again next summer.