Just before moving to NC I started reviewing local eBird reports to look for good hot spots nearby. One that kept popping up was the sod farm at Hooper Lane, just 30 minutes from my new house. I put together a file titled “Hooper Lane Sightings” which included these 2 entries -
8/31 - Baird’s – 6 continuing birds
8/30 - Baird’s – 3 Continuing birds. Foraging with
pectoral sandpipers and killdeer on fields on east side of Hooper Lane, about
.25 mile in from Jeffress Rd. Warm buffy color, buffy breast, wingtips
projected beyond tail tip
Although we arrived on 8/25/19, the vast amount of work required
to settle into the new house kept me from doing any birding for several days. My first trip to the sod farm was on
September 1, unfortunately the first day after the Baird’s had moved on. Though that trip helped me figure out how to
bird the site, which was most helpful on my next trip there on September 10
when I found a rare Buff-breasted Sandpiper in one of the fields. But despite several trips there in September
I couldn’t come up with a Baird’s. I
wasn’t too concerned though given that they appeared to be regular in August,
at least based on 2019 reports.
So as August 2020 arrived I was anxiously awaiting the
arrival of 1 or more Baird’s at the Hooper Lane sod farm. But it had been reasonably dry there this
summer, even though it had been very wet at my house just 10 miles away “as the
sandpiper flies”. So with the dry
conditions there was little, if any, mud to attract shorebirds. Further complicating the story was that the
owners of the sod farm had revised their policies and no longer let trespassers
(including birders) into their fields.
That meant any bird we looked for needed to be relatively close to the
public roads.
Despite the less than great conditions at Hooper Lane I
still visited the farm several times in August.
And on my trip there on the 20th I noticed something new – a patch of
sod had just been harvested very close to the road. This resulted in a patch of dirt with some
low areas of mud and standing water – looked like a very inviting spot for
shorebirds. I pulled over and started to
scan the area with my binocs, initially just seeing a large number of
Killdeer. Then on another scan I noticed
a medium-sized peep at the edge of the dirt quite close to the road. Within seconds I knew I had an immature
Baird’s Sandpiper – buffy chest, scalloped mantle, long wings beyond the
wingtips, dark legs and bill. That is
perhaps my favorite plumage of any shorebird.
Nice to finally see one after missing them by just a day the previous
year. Unfortunately, by the time I got
set up to phonescope the bird it had moved farther from the road, so this
crummy photo was the best I could do.
The Baird’s stuck around mostly in that same field for 3 more days, allowing quite a number of birders to see it.
Baird’s Sandpiper was #305 for my NC list. And my 23rd shorebird species at Hooper Lane
since moving here almost exactly a year ago.
Pretty amazing that so many species of shorebirds migrate over the NC
mountains, let alone stopping at this one location in the last 12 months. Needless to say, Hooper Lane is one of my
favorite local birding spots.
My statebird map for Baird’s is inserted below. The blue-shaded states are those where I’ve
seen this species in its regular range.
The 3 cross-hatched states are those where I still need it, though it’s still
regular. And the multiple east coast
states in tan are those where I’ve seen Baird’s though the range maps suggest
Baird’s is a rarity. Not exactly sure
I’d call it rare on the east coast myself…
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