Observers: Jon Dunn and Mike San Miguel
Email: cerwa@earthlink.net
Verification: MONO
Remote Name: 72.47.27.190
Date: 08/04/2007
Time: 12:00 PM -0400
Yesterday morning we drove the 8.5 miles down the rough dirt road to the north side of Tinemaha Reservoir (dirt road takes off south from state highway 168, just east of the Owens River crossing). Although the water was low, much of the exposed habitat was now dry mud and there were very few shorebirds. We counted only eight Western Sandpipers, one of which was a juvenile. However, there was a single juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper which was a bit flighty (photos), but stayed around the entire time we were there. Three adult Semipalmated Plovers and two adult Lesser Yellowlegs were also present. Early August is an excellent time to find juvenile Semipalmated Sandpipers as the juvenile Westerns have not arrived in bulk. Peak movements for juvenile Semipalmated Sandpipers in the Pacific states (limited as it is) is early to mid August. They are decidedly rarer by the end of the month and especially in September by which time there are swarms of young Westerns and they are therefore harder to pick out.