Solitary Sandpiper stretchingSolitary Sandpiper stretching – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

Solitary Sandpipers have been migrating through northern Utah recently and I’m not the only ones seeing these sandpipers. Other friends in Utah have photographed them and asked me to ID them. I photographed this Solitary Sandpiper two days ago at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and saw several more and I also photographed a pair of them the week before. They aren’t all that uncommon in Utah during fall migration.

The thing is that some of the range maps I have checked show Solitary Sandpipers as rare in Utah with them migrating several hundred miles to the east of this area. See this map from Cornell University and my new Sibley’s Guide to Birds shows a similar map (which I won’t take a picture of because of copyright issues).

However; my old American Museum of Natural History “Birds of North America” and my National Geographic “Field Guide to the Birds of North America” guides shows them as migrating through this area on their range maps. My iBird Pro app shows them migrating through this area but my Audubon app shows conflicting results with the first map showing them as common during migration and the second range map they have for Solitary Sandpipers doesn’t show them migrating through Utah. A little confusing, right?

My point is that when trying to use range maps to identify some species of birds you may need to check several sources to get a better idea of where a specific bird species might be found using a range map. That seems to be the case with Solitary Sandpipers any way.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Solitary Sandpiper photos plus facts and information about this species.