(c) Greg Saulmon 2013

As we head into the heart of the fall migration, I’ve been seeing numerous reports in the area of assorted shorebirds moving through the region, with many spotted in the popular “Honey Pot” section of Connecticut River farmland in Hadley.

With a short window for birding this evening, I took a walk along the river in Holyoke to see if I could find any closer to home. The water level is very low, allowing me to access a small patch of land that’s usually inaccessible by foot. There, in a nearly dry outflow from one of the former paper mills, I found the Solitary Sandpiper shown above foraging in the muck.

The walk also brought a sighting of the first Osprey I’ve seen in the city; it was flying upstream near dusk.

Below, a short video of the sandpiper: