Mystery shorebird photos from the The Great Bucktoe Shorebird Watch

Each spring, Larry Lewis and crew hold The Great Bucktoe Kite/Shorebird Watch at the Bucktoe Creek Preserve to scan the skies nightly for Mississippi Kites and for shorebird flocks taking to the sky and winging north. Holly Merker forwarded me a couple photos of the distant shorebirds, in hopes that someone would be able to pin a name to them. I have copied some of her notes into the captions of the cropped photos below. You can also scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the three gallery images to get the full image.

We’d love to hear any opinions on the identification of these birds in the comments below.

Zoomed in. The first two photos are the same flock. It seems to be mixed. You really need to zoom in to see much.

Zoomed in. The first two photos are the same flock. It seems to be mixed. You really need to zoom in to see much.

Zoomed in. This is a different group of birds than the first two photos. They seemed a bit larger than those in the first group. They also had less of a rapid wingbeat.