Hi All,

After reading Doug and Spencer Hardy's posting yesterday regarding the two
Purple Sandpipers flying by at a close distance, I headed there this morning. I
was at the steel bridge when a new birder named, Marianne Ward caught up
to me. We began walking together and just beyond the 2.5 mile post she
said, "What are those?" I said, "Where?" Then she said, "I just saw some small
birds over there". She was pointing ahead on the left (west) side of the
causeway. We walked a little further and she said, "There they are, what are
they?" I put my binos on them and said, "Those are PURPLE SANDPIPERS". I
counted 13 of them. They took off heading north. I relocated them again on
the west side of the causway a little while later, as we were walking north. I
counted 13 of them again, and then they took off heading south. Then, we
found a group on the east side of the causeway. I counted 12 and then
another one joined them, from an area left of the rock that they were on. As
we got closer to them , I saw 6 more on a rock next to the other 13, for a
total of 19 in one group. We watched them for a while and then they took off
headind east. I had to get going about then. Marianne kept heading north and
I headed back. On the way in I found 14 Purple Sandpipers on the east side of
the causeway. My official count is 19 all together because that is how many I
am certain that I saw at the same time. The original 13 could have been
joined by 6 more. The 14 could have been part of the group of 19. All of these
Purple Sandpipers were seen past the 2.5 mile post coming from the
Colchester side of the causeway. The first 13 were seen at 9:33 a.m. The last
14 were seen at 10:33 a.m.

Enjoy Birds,

Jim Mead