After yesterday morning’s visit to Whitewater, we headed north by way of the Sulphur Springs to Willcox, hoping for a better shorebird selection: Whitewater had produced only Killdeer and a gang of four Solitary Sandpipers.

Smelly Lake Cochise wasn’t very much better, though as the image above shows, there were a few birds, mostly American Avocets and Wilson’s Phalaropes. Small numbers of Western and Least Sandpipers fed along the few muddy edges left by the past weeks’ heavy raings; all were bright, crisp juveniles, freshly arrived on their long solitary journey from the north.

And a new species for the autumn joined the bunch.

A dozen or so Red-necked Phalaropes had arrived, bobbing and spinning among their larger, more slender cousins. We saw only one adult, all the others still in juvenile plumage or, like this one, molting into their first-basic dress for winter.

This species is rare inland over most of the east and midwest, but is a fairly common fall migrant through the mountain west; we should have a couple of weeks now to enjoy them before they head out to the open waters of the Pacific for the winter.

Late August is not the season to go looking for thrashers, so Darlene and I were more than delighted this morning to run across this fine fellow perched up and singing at Whitewater Draw. Just twenty years ago, Bendire’s Thrasher was thought to be purely a winter resident in the Sulphur Springs Valley, but we now know that they breed there as well; that’s not news to this guy, still busy proclaiming his territory months after the breeding season!

I bet he’ll be even more irresistible to the ladies once that tail molt is completed.