14 September 2025
Northmoreland Park in Apollo, PA has a lake, strolling paths, mountain bike trails and enjoying fields however is never visited by birders as a result of there are few species of curiosity, simply the standard suspects. All of that modified on 16 August when Mark McConaughy photographed a Baird’s sandpiper on the mudflat on the lake.
Baird’s sandpipers (Calidris bairdii) are uncommon in Pennsylvania as a result of they breed within the arctic, winter in southern South America, and migrate over the Nice Plains.

One thing diverted this particular person from it’s regular route, maybe dangerous climate or the wildfires in Canada. It veered east, entered southwestern Pennsylvania, and seemed for a superb place to land — a mudflat — simply earlier than daybreak.
If southwestern PA wasn’t in a drought there would have been no mudflat and the Baird’s would have saved going. As a substitute he stayed for 2 days and attracted 9 extra eBirders.
This time of yr is shorebird migration season so birders continued to cease by to test the mudflat. “A uncommon chicken was right here and circumstances are proper for an additional one, so I’ll have a look simply in case.” I prefer to name this The Uncommon Fowl Impact.
The Uncommon Fowl Impact paid off at 7:11pm on 4 September when Susan Miller photographed a phalarope. Merlin mentioned it needed to be a red-necked phalarope, which is uncommon however not unimaginable, however Susan thought that didn’t look proper. Her photographs helped establish it as a crimson phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius) a super-rare chicken within the continental inside as a result of it winters on and migrates over the open ocean. Right here’s what she noticed.

The crimson phalarope stayed two days, 5 and 6 September, and generated 40 extra eBird visits together with the photograph at prime by Steve Gosser and photographs beneath by Phillip Rodgers. The chicken got here near shore for nice photographs!
A few of us confirmed up on 7 September, the morning after it left. Alas!
Proper now Northmoreland’s mudflat is sort of a birding hotspot so it’s price checking simply in case. “You see rather a lot by wanting.”