Sunday afternoon, August 15th, I birded at Leonard's Pond. After about
twenty minutes spent scoping out the few shorebirds present (6 Killdeer, 1
Spotted
Sandpiper, 2 Solitary Sandpipers, and 1 Least Sandpiper) along with searching
through a bunch of hirundids looking fruitlessly for a Bank Swallow, I was
astonished to see a large shorebird hop out of the high grasses and down onto
the
mud flat. It was hopping because it was severely injured in one leg, which
was dangling behind the other, looking broken and bloody, as if the bird had
barely escaped in an encounter with a predator. It preened and the large white
flashes in the wing, the white uppertail and lower rump, the mostly overall
gray plumage and the long stout bill and gray color of the good leg clearly
marked it as a Willet.
According to Clair Mellinger's "Birds of Rockingham County, Virginia" this is
the third record of Willet for the county and the first fall record. On
April 20, 1981, 14 were seen on a drawn-down Lake Shenandoah, and one was seen
at
Trissel's Pond on April 26, 1989.
John Irvine
Harrisonburg, VA
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