We found 2 American Golden Plovers foraging in a newly seeded field on the west side of Lake Rd, and a little north of Ferry Road in Charlotte this afternoon.  It was opposite Fortins Farm Stand.  We watched them from 1:30 to 2pm.  Also present were 37 killdeer and 2 semipalmated plovers.

One AG plover plumage was 1/2 way between breeding and winter.  The other plover, slightly smaller, was almost all in non breeding plumage.  One even lifted it wings as it jumped over a few feet, showing us the lack of black arm pits.  Beautiful birds.

Earlier today we spent some time at Charlotte town beach scoping for jaegers.  We did see one harass some gulls a couple of times.  It was very distant each time we saw it, but definitely flashed white at the ends of the wings during the chase scenes, and was a very dark bird otherwise.  When I could zoom in, it appeared to have quite a bit of golden brown, but due to the distance, heat distortion, lighting and brief looks, am not sure how accurate the colors were.  It appeared 2b slightly smaller than the RB gulls it was chasing.  Parasitic maybe, but I'm going with jaeger sp.

Love this time of year,

Liz Lackey