Semipalmated Plovers and Sanderlings at BESP

Yesterday afternoon Nate Fronk reported Sanderlings, Semipalmated Plovers, and Semipalmated Sandpipers at the Bald Eagle State Park swimming beach. I wasn’t able to run over yesterday, but first thing this morning Josh Lefever, Mark Mizak, Ian Gardner and I drove over and met up with Nate and Drew Weber. Four juvenile Sanderlings and two adult Semipalmated Plovers were foraging on the swimming beach when we arrived. The plovers were a new Centre County bird for me! It was still pretty dark out when we arrived, so the photos below are a little dark, and because I had to use the flash, the bird’s eyes are a little weird. Check out this link to our full list for the hour we spent at the park this morning.

Semipalmated Plover - adult

Sanderling - juvenile