Hi C-Birders,

Caroline Eastman and I were returning from the CBC
meeting in Mt.
Pleasant
this afternoon, Sunday, 2 Oct 2005. We stopped in at
the Orangeburg sod
farms (exit 154 of I-26, Orangeburg Co., SC) and
scowered the place,
looking
for the Buff-breasted Sandpipers and American
Golden-Plovers that have
been
reported these recently. We visited the field called
"Aiken Farm",
which is
along US 301 west (or south) from the Supersod office.
Go past the
Supersod
Office (going from the interstate towards the city of
Orangeburg). Go
past
Roquefort Drive. Look for a rough farm road off of US
301 to the left
(south). There is a small sign that says something
like "Supersod
Corporation -- Aiken Farm". If you get to the large
yellow and black
billboard sign for the Trump Inn you have gone about a
quarter mile too
far.

Right near this turn was a large mobile irrigation
arm, with mud
puddles
under it.  In the mud were seven Wilson's Snipe and a
couple of
Killdeer.
While I was admiring the snipe Caroline said, "There's
another
sandpiper. I
think it might be a Pectoral." I looked over at the
two Killdeer and
there
was one sandpiper, about the size and shape of a
Pectoral, but perhaps
a bit
slimmer and a tiny bit longer-legged. It had a bold
white supercillium,
a
reddish cap, finely lined with darker brown. Its
breast had some fine
streaking on it, but this was somewhat smudged. The
bird did not have a
fine
demarcation on its breast like a Pectoral does.

We watched this bird for about 5 minutes at about 30
yards. I got out
my
copy of Hayman, Marchant and Prater, "Shorebirds, An
identification
guide to
the waders of the world", which just happened to be in
the trunk of the
car.
(That's why you never finish unpacking when we get
home from a birding
trip.
Some things are best left in the car). I turned to the
Pectoral /
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper plate and studied the bird. I
was thinking that
it
was a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, but had said nothing
yet. Our bird
matched
figure 200b on Plate 82, adult non-breeding
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. I
gave
Caroline the book and asked her what she thought the
bird was. She also
picked out Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.

Just then the two Killdeer spooked and those two, plus
the Sharp-tailed
Sandpiper, got up and flew about 200 yards away into
the field. As it
flew
the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper gave a call. It sounded a
lot more mellow
and
musical than the corresponding call of Pectoral
Sandpiper. The three
birds
disappeared behind a small rise and we did not
relocate thiem.

When I got home just now I got out my CD "Bird Calls
of the Broome
Region,
Australia". This area on the northwest Australian
coast has one of the
foremost gathering places of shorebirds in the world,
so the CD has
great
recordings of about 3 dozen Old World shorebirds,
including several
samples
of Sharp-tailed Sandpiper calls. The call that I heard
at the sod farm
was
exactly the third call of Sharp-tailed Sandpiper from
the CD.

Unfortunately we did not get either pictures or
sound-recordings of
this
bird. We were too busy looking at it. As far as I know
this is the
second
record of Sharp-tailed Sandpiper for the Orangeburg
sod farms and the
second
record for South Carolina.

Here is our day list for the Orangeburg sod farms and
vicinity:

Turkey Vulture -- 2
Red-shouldered Hawk -- 1
Red-tailed Hawk -- 1
American Kestrel -- 1
Killdeer -- 75
Least Sandpiper -- 20
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper -- 1
Wilson's Snipe -- 7
Rock Pigeon -- 35
Mourning Dove -- 4
Northern Flicker -- 1
Horned Lark -- 25
Tree Swallow -- 10
Northern Rough-winged Swallow -- 15
Cliff Swallow -- 1
Barn Swallow -- 8
Blue Jay -- 12
American Crow -- 10
Carolina Chickadee -- 3
Carolina Wren -- 2
Eastern Bluebird -- 3
Northern Mockingbird -- 4
Brown Thrasher -- 2
Loggerhead Shrike -- 3
Pine Warbler -- 1
Palm Warbler -- 5
Northern Cardinal -- 5
Blue Grosbeak -- 2
Eastern Towhee -- 1
sparrow sp. (Savannah?) -- 1
American Goldfinch -- 1

Robin Carter
Columbia, SC USA
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