Sandpipers returning to the Earhardt x Causeway ponds

Well, there has been low water in the retention ponds beneath Causeway at Earhardt for most of the summer, but no migrant shorebirds till today.

This morning there were a single Least Sandpiper, single Pectoral Sandpiper, and two Spotted Sandpipers.

Leasts are tiny and brown above, Pectoral is twice as large (but still smaller than Killdeer) and also quite brown above; Spotteds are most easily told by their exaggerated bobbing of their rear ends as they walk about. 

They were in the company of 8 Black-necked Stilts and 8 Killdeer- nesters in the New Orleans area.  And the usual large waders- today Snowy Egrets, White Ibis, and a young Black-crowned Night-Heron.  An adult Red-shouldered Hawk was atop the utility pole where it often sits.

Someone has put four duck decoys out there in the marshy section east of the overpass- not sure what they are thinking!?!

Peter