Recent trip to Bodega Bay included views of the Wandering Tattler, Tringa incana. At Bodega Head we had good scope views of 2 Wandering Tattlers, on the rocks below the whale-watching area.The birds were foraging on wave-swept rocks about 75 yards from our viewpoint. First photo is the un-cropped original. The medium-dark gray back makes it hard to pick out when the background is rocky or covered with mussels.
The second cropped version is only 9% of the full size, so details and sharpness are lacking - just not enough pixels on the bird! Note the white supercilliary, especially in front of the eye, as well as the extensive barring, as seen on some of the "shanks".
Tattlers passing through along the California coast in July are adults in alternate plumage, all dark gray above and strikingly barred below. Juveniles will pass through from mid-August to September. The Tattlers breed mostly at higher elevations across Alaska, and into both far-east Russia and northwest Canada. They migrate south from mid-July thru August, and are seen at rocky locations and jetties all along the coast. Many will end up in Central or South America for the winter while others have already headed on in a transpacific journey to the many islands of the Pacific, from Hawaii to Indonesia and New Zealand, and almost every island in Oceania. They are fairly solitary birds, seen mostly as individuals or groups of 2-3 birds. Total world population may be no more than 25,000 birds.
When watching the Tattlers (there is a second species, the Gray-tailed Tattler, a rare vagrant here) one is struck by the teetering tail movements, much like that of the Spotted Sandpiper.
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