Long-time coming for a "Buffy" first for the County.

Early June I went back and looked at some of my pictures from April 16th (since I was trying to get the blog updated).  I started looking closer at the Pectoral Sandpipers.  With the quantity of birds there, I knew I should have looked closer.  As I was looking through them I ran across the bird on the edges of the frame.  The very short bill on this bird really was not good for Pectoral Sandpiper.  With it flashing its wings part way I assumed it must have just landed, so I decided to track back the pictures to see if I could find more.  

I went through previous frames and this bird in flight had to be the bird from above.  All other birds were accounted for.  This was not the flight silhouette of a Pectoral Sandpiper.   They are more boxy, wider in the body.  

Unfortunately this pics were off the main focus point of the picture, so not very clear.  These are definitely not a Pectoral Sandpiper though.  I start going through the options.  Similar sized birds would be

• Sanderling would have a similar flight shape as Pectoral
• Baird's and White-rumped Sandpiper would be shorter.  
• Dunlin would have a longer bill.
• Ruff would be too much to hope for, and it lacks the marked up sides

Buff-breasted Sandpiper would fit for bill size and flight shape.  The partially spread wings showed a dark comma that would also fit more with Buff-breasted.  The lighting washed out most of the buffy color on the chest.  

It was a long shot, but really not sure what else it could be.  I had picked up 5 more County bird after this one was sighted, so belatedly Buff-breasted Sandpiper was confirmed for Calhoun County bird #222, pushing the total to 227.  Never imagined I could get to a number like this.  Hopefully I can still find 3 more birds this year to get to 230 prior to the end of it.  On top of that this was the first Buff-breasted Sandpiper for the County ever.  This pushed Calhoun County up to 272 birds sighted here.