We had a brief visit by a Solitary Sandpiper last week. I’ve recorded only three species of shorebirds in our little wetlands, Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers and Killdeer. Solitary Sandpipers are the most frequent visitors and that’s what showed up last week.

You may remember when two years ago a solitary wandered in to our wetlands and nearly became dinner for a bullfrog. In fact, two solitaries dropped in that year due to the very low water levels, exposing the muddy bottom to the foraging birds.

Most shorebirds need mud in which to probe for and glean invertebrates. Although the water level is on the low side right now, there just isn’t enough exposed mud to draw in or hold shorebirds in our Wetland.

The bird was gone the next morning, presumably headed for the tropics.