Things were generally very dull during my lunch hour visit to SWAP. Sparrow numbers were way down from a couple of weeks ago, and the only species in good numbers was Robin, with an estimated 250 in the air and on the ground. A pair of Cooper's Hawks was keeping things stirred up. I was on my way out, just crossing the little culvert where there's a pond on both sides, when a large, long-billed shorebird flew overhead. The bill said dowitcher but the gizz was too long and lanky. I managed to pull over safely while keeping an eye on the bird, which went down on a mud flat at the far side of the pond south of the road, about 150 yards away. It was wading in deep water, looking somewhat like a yellowlegs but uniformly pale grayish with a light supercilium and a long, nearly straight bill that was reddish at the base. And the legs weren't yellow. I was pretty sure of the ID but still needed to rule out Black-tailed Godwit. After just a couple of minutes it took off, showing a black tail with white uppertail coverts, very dark underwings and a thin white dorsal wing stripe -- Hudsonian Godwit. Sadly, it's almost certainly not chaseable -- the bird kept going south, then turning west (possibly over the Patapsco) until it was out of sight. I was hoping it would at least keep going into Anne Arundel County but I can't confirm that it did. 
 
Joel Martin
Catonsville, MD

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