Buff-breasted Sandpiper migration

 While we wait for the big hawk migration push, don't forget to look (observing socially distancing) for the many migrating shorebirds now, some common, some rare, like this Buff-breasted Sandpiper I photographed on the NH coast in 2011. This is a juvenile bird, told by the whitish margins of the back and wing feathers and paler underparts than the adult.

An Arctic breeder, it usually migrates through the interior of the country and can be found during migration in plowed fields, upper beaches, margins of wetlands and short-grass habitats. Birds found outside the main migration route are often juveniles.