Spotted sandpiper, Amos

It was too hot to do much more than sweat, so, to avoid heat stroke, we headed up to the lake to try to stay cool. There was a nice breeze, and the water was splendid. Maybe we could simply stay put. Apparently, we were not the only species thinking this way, because skimming over the water was a newly arrived shorebird: a migrant Spotted Sandpiper perhaps just heading back south after a breeding trip to the Arctic. The energetic bird, its breast devoid of the telltale spots, nevertheless had a couple of fieldmarks left on its feathers to allow a proper ID—and, of course, when it landed, it began a steady series of tail bobs, a characteristic of the species. I'm not a good enough shorebirder to tell whether the plumage is that of a freshly molted adult or a recently fledged juvenile making its first migratory trip, but whatever its age, the unspotted Spotted will no doubt be hanging around the shoreline for at least a few weeks. My guess is that we'll be doing the same.