Over the next few hours, several dozen birders would head to this lonely spot just north of Marana about 2 miles off Interstate 10. Many would hit the Internet when they returned home, letting others know the times they saw the sandpiper, its behavior - it was flighty, but would land on the berms before settling into the fields - and many of the other birds foraging across these fields. Photos would appear on personal Web sites within hours. Another birder, Gary Rosenberg, keeps track of state records; he would report that this was only the third buff-breasted sandpiper seen in Arizona.
The final e-mails of the day said the bird was still present as darkness came. For those who couldn't escape on Friday, there was some hope that the favorable habitat would allow the birds to forgo their nightly migration south and remain overnight to be spotted by more people on Saturday. Another e-mail reminded people that Saturday was the first day of dove hunting season and to be careful.
A buff-breasted sandpiper
Photo by Jim Burns
Well before Saturday's dawn, Anne Peyton and I took off for the appointed spot, arriving about 7 a.m. to find a dozen birders already scanning the field. Within minutes, activity started in the field again: a flock of 18 Baird's sandpipers took off and began a standard sandpiper flight, the entire group darting left and right in unison, flashing brown, then flashing white.
But something was off - one bird wasn't keeping up. Its turns were wider as if it missed the collective signal to turn as one. It led the pack, then lagged behind, then flew harder to catch up again. One thing was unmistakable: this bird was larger than the others.
The group finally landed and every binocular and scope homed in on the group: there, on the berm, a larger sandpiper, drab in color, a small white stripe above the eye and a faint ring around the neck with a buff-colored breast. Here it was…
…and then it was gone, as every bird in the field took off as one. Looking skyward, a large fast-moving shape screamed across the field - a peregrine falcon on the hunt. She took chase, but came up empty and settled on a nearby telephone pole.
While in the field looking for a specific bird, keep a lookout for any other special birds. The same field that produced the sandpiper had many curlews foraging.
The sandpiper appeared a couple more times, but when the peregrine went airborne again, the ensuing panic sent the sandpipers farther off into the fields. We remained another hour with no sightings before leaving for home to post our morning sightings. Other birders reported that the sandpiper returned around 11:30 and was scarce during the rest of the day. Subsequent postings allowed birders to know it was spotted daily for the following week.
In the day, people would search for birds on their own. If you found something interesting, you wrote a report and submitted it to regional birding authorities. Populated areas had phone trees and birding hotlines where birders called in their finds and others could get the information off the machine.
The Internet has changed that process. E-mail listservs - large mail groups where one message is sent to hundreds or thousands of interested people - make rare finds timely for many. Many are regional - Western U.S. rare bird alerts (RBAs), Arizona/New Mexico or Utah - or microregional - Southern California, San Diego, Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Orange County. Cell phones and blackberry devices allow new finds to be posted instantaneously from the field.
If you don't belong to a listserv, no problem: all records are archived and available for viewing on the Internet, and many local birding groups post their own sightings.
Planning a vacation and want to see the birds? Find your destination's bird listserv archives and see what local birders are seeing. Join the service and ask about birds that would be new for you, but second nature to local birders.
Have a special type of bird you're interested in? There are listservs for shorebirds, hawk watches, feeder birds and several other groups.
Just interested in talking about birds? There's a listserv for that, and other for discussing the finer details of identifying birds or to talk about neotropical birds that rely on bird-safe coffee production.
It's easy to get started. There are two listservs that cover Arizona: you can visit http://www.tucsonaudubon.org/birding/aznmlist.htm for instructions to join the Arizona-New Mexico list, or http://nazas.org/sightings/index.php for Northern Arizona Audubon Society's Web sightings.
To find another area or a special subject that interests you, take a look at the American Birding Association pages, http://www.americanbirding.org/resources/mailinglists.html (state/regional), or http://www.americanbirding.org/abalinks/linkspage5a.htm (RBAs and focused discussions), and join the search. You'll find a community of people who share your passion for finding new birds or rediscovering old favorites. You'll be tempted to visit new areas of the state. And I guarantee that you will learn something new about the birds, the environment and how we all interact.
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