ML282927791
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
- Behaviors
- Flying
- Sounds
- Call
- Playback
- Playback not used
Observation details
Continuing large numbers at this location. I hadn't seen any Pectorals at all until an adult male harrier flew through and flushed all these birds from the area of marsh southeast of Grand Boulevard. These and 2-3 Least Sandpipers were the only shorebirds over there. The flock of Pectorals flew around and then split up, with one group of about 10 individuals flying north over New Chicago Marsh. I think they landed in the marsh with the other shorebirds, but I was focused on the larger group, which circled a couple times and then flew off to the east, out of sight. I tried to count this moving flock one by one, and I reached a total of 25 individuals, but the flock shifted before I could count the remaining few of them; I think the true number in this flock was in the high 20s, maybe 30 or more. The 25+ in this flock plus the ~10 in the other flock make up my conservative estimate of 35, but I think there were probably at least 40. I recognized them as Pectorals because they were much larger and chunkier than Least, but they were a similar rich shade of chestnut-brown. Unlike dowitchers or other similarly sized shorebirds, they had this same brown coloration on the rump and the center of the tail, with white outer edges of the tail, like Least or Western. I also enjoyed hearing their calls, which helped confirm the ID—their calls were similar in quality to Least or Baird’s, but much lower-pitched. I got a poor recording of their calls, but wind and Long-billed Dowitcher calls obscure them. Later, I think I heard additional Pectorals calling from among all the dowitchers and stilts. These may have been some of the group of 10 that seemed to join the other shorebirds in the main part of the marsh.
Technical information
- Recorder
- iPhone 8
- Microphone
- Accessories
- Original file size
- 1.11 MB