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This evening as I walked around the state park I saw a juvenile Baird's sandpiper in Bunker Pond. It was fairly close to the hawk watch, in easy binocular viewing range. In the evening sunlight, the brown of its head and neck seemed especially warm. It was my first life bird since moving to Cape May.
The Baird's sandpiper was surrounded by least sandpipers, so it was easy to judge the relative sizes. Other birds in the pond included many lesser yellowlegs, one of which I tried (unsuccessfully) to turn into a stilt sandpiper, and the large flocks of black skimmers and black terns that have been loafing on the sandbars for the last few days.
Elsewhere in the park I saw a Philadelphia vireo, a bird I see very rarely. There have also been good numbers of prairie warblers at the state park the last two days.
