Two Little Stints in saltworks pond 23

Today (12/2) I was checking on "the" Little Stint on the pond 23 island in saltworks. At the north end of the island amongst Ring-billed Gulls I photographed a more uniformly plumaged Little Stint that showed browner and longer tertials and less contrasty wing coverts than the relatively "easy-to-see" contrasty Little Stint. With the longer and browner tertials and less contrasty wing coverts this bird will probably be near impossible to pick out from the bike path. The contrasty Little Stint that is often foraging on the south section of the island was in the same pond but briefly roosting in the far SE corner and then foraging along the E shore of the pond. I'm not sure how the viewing from the bike path is for this new SE location for the "easy" stint but it obviously likes the long island in the SW corner of the pond and will hopefully continue to appear there. It wouldn't be the first time it left the island to fly to harder-to-scope areas in the pond.

This more uniform stint is probably the same bird that I and two others photographed on 11/20 (I had my suspicions then) and is also probably the same bird Charlie Jackson photographed over a month ago on the 10/20 Audubon walk. That would make it the 2nd county record. The contrasty stint I found on 11/16 that everyone is able to pick out from the bike path would be the 3rd county record.

Photos later.

Matt Sadowski
La Mesa
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports