Red Knot at Bradford Beach 9/3/21

I started my day a McKinley Beach, just passed sunrise. I was hoping to see a Baird’s Sandpiper, as a few had been seen the previous days. However, there were only Sanderlings, Semipalmated Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers, to be found. My next stop was Bradford Beach. I parked in the lot on the south end, looked through my binoculars and didn’t see anything. I sent out a text about nothing on the beach and received one back that there were a few Sanderlings on the far northern end, along with a slightly larger one, that was buffy toned. I had a feeling of what it was, so I drove to the other side and parked. I just took my binoculars with me, instead of lugging my camera to confirm and sure enough it was a Red Knot! I quickly went back to the car and grabbed my camera (should’ve just brought it right away). I walked out to water and sat on a rock. It was kind of working its way to the south, so I just waited. There were plenty of joggers, walkers and dog, that I knew it would be moving around quite a bit. After 20 minutes or so, there were several of us watching now, it flew right in to us with some Sanderlings. It was probably only 30′ away, and coming towards us. There were also 36 Sanderlings running around too, with some of them coming closer then ten feet. Eventually, the Red Knot came that close as well, so close that it was below my minimum focus distance (14.75′)! Always fun when the shorebirds walk right up to everyone. The beach was very busy this morning and I don’t think the bird was seen past 840ish. It was nice to have a day off and see a rare bird! Pictures below are from this morning. Enjoy!