The Flamingo

Birded the refuge from ~0900-1230; quite slow, but a couple of items that may be of interest.

The American Flamingo, which, as far as I know, has not been seen or reported for a few days was back on Mounds #1 near the covered bench at 1220 (not present on our way in, ~0930).

We were at Tower Pond four hours before high tide in the bay, but with the very high tides and south winds, Tower Pond was flooded with no exposed interior mud flats; a bit of exposed mud around the perimeter. Consequently, only several dozen longer legged shorebirds were present: mostly Willets and S-b Dowitchers, a few Gr Yellowlegs, single M Godwit and Am Avocet, several Dunlin that appeared to be at the limits of their depth tolerance, and a single Pectoral Sandpiper flew in as we were scanning the pond. A few Least Sandpipers circled around and decided this wasn’t for them.

Did not locate the reported Vermilion Flycatcher (but we didn’t have time to cover the entire 80,000 acres of the refuge).