Juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper

Nothing too special to say about this juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper except that it's shots like this that make it worth crawling in the mud to get down close to bird eye level, covered in goose sh*t and bitten by Horse Flies. The bad days are when you get nothing at all, but it's often feast or famine at Jamaica Bay with a lot of random mixing of shorebirds. By the end of August juveniles are relatively common (this was taken Sept 1st 2008 at 7am) but they are quite scarce earlier in the season.

Update: this year I doubt I will be so lucky - recent rains have filled up the East Pond at Jamaica Bay leaving relatively little exposed mud as per birder reports. Some years this happens in early September, some years much later, but it's an unusual year for it to occur in August. The green "grass" here requires a few hot weeks of exposed mud to develop, so it won't be as lush as previous years and photo ops will be highly limited. The situation probably isn't enhanced by the laissez-faire attitude of the reserve staff on lowering water levels in recent years.