Sanderling in Vermont, August 2011 (Irene Post #2)

While traveling back from the the Quabbin Reservoir after seeing the Tropicbird and Sooty Tern, David Deifik and I strategized where the best birds might appear the next day.  Although we considered First Encounter Beach, we eventually focused on going back to central New England hoping for additional birds that had been blown inland by Hurricane Irene.  We thought the Connecticut River could be a great corridor storm birds might use to try to get back to the ocrean.  We chose the river at Hinsdale, NH, just above the Vernon Dam.  This spot provides an excellent view of nearly a mile of the river, which would give us lots of time to see all those great birds that might fly by.

We got to the dam at about 6:30 AM on the 29th and began to scan the river.  Several notable local birds were present, including an adult and immature Bald Eagle, which initially kept us on our toes.  But as the day progressed, we realized that we weren't likely to get many storm birds.  Our attention frequently moved to the river, where we watched an amazing stream of trees and brush filing past us.  As we looked closer at the floating debris, we began to notice refrigerators, propane tanks, coolers, kid's toys, and most anything else that could float.  We were hearing stories of horrendous flooding in the watershed upriver, and we were witnessing the results of the powerful flood waters that had rushed through peoples' yards. 

Several times we had small flocks of shorebirds fly south generally over our heads.  Interestly, these shorebirds weren't flying down river, intead they were riding the debris down the river.  Then as the debris neared the dam, they would take off, circle a bit, then gain altitude and make their way off to the south.  One of those flocks consisted of 4 Sanderlings - spending some time in NH airspace and some time in VT airspace - a new one for my VT list.  These are certainly good birds for the Connecticut River valley, and perhaps affected by Irene.  We also had one semi sandpiper, one yellowlegs, and several unidentified small and mid-sized peeps.

My statebird map for Sanderling is inserted below.  Most birders probably think of Sanderling as a coastal bird, and of course it is common on the coasts.  But it is also a rather regular migrant through the middle of the country; I've seen it in 13 inland states.  Interestingly, even when they are away from the coast, they are more likely to be on sandy or rocky beaches than on mudflats.