Taylor Swift , you might guess . No , not this time . It was a Terek sandpiper , a species of shorebird known for its distinctive long upcurved bill that typically summers in a large breeding area stretching from Finland to Siberia before migrating to east Africa , southern Asia and Australia for the winter . It ’ s rarely spotted in the Americas . According to the American Birding Association ( ABA ), it ’ s been known to make an appearance in the outer reaches of Alaska ’ s Aleutian Islands , but this was its first recorded trip to Rhode Island — and only its fourth ever to the East Coast . ( The last was Massachusetts in 1990 .)
This page : The Terek sandpiper . Opposite page : Birdwatchers on a bird walk with the Audubon Society of Rhode Island .
We ’ ll never know how or why this well-traveled visitor , slightly smaller than a robin , landed at Napatree Point , the southwestern-most spot in Rhode Island . But its arrival was big news in certain circles . The ABA issued a rare bird alert (# ABArba ), local environmental news outlet ecoRI . org covered it , a Connecticut blogger documented his “ drop everything ” boat ride to chase it , and visitors came from as far as Ohio just for the chance to see it — which was , of course , not guaranteed . There ’ s no way to keep a bird in place for long , and indeed , the Terek frustrated its eager admirers by retreating several times into the vegetation of Napatree or the even more cloistered confines of Sandy Point , a small island that was once an extension of Napatree . “ There are lots of unhappy out-of-state birders ,” one local reported a few days later .
This is what birders ( not bird-watchers , thank you very much ) refer to as a “ megararity .” It would have to be to draw so many adoring fans to such a difficult location ; the roughly one-and-a-half-mile trudge along Napatree is among Rhode Island birders ’ favorite complaints — as is the strict two-hour parking limit in Watch Hill , another obstacle to seeing the Terek .
The bird was first spotted by Jan St . Jean , something of a legend among local birders , who frequently ends the year at the top of the Rhode Island rankings ( more on that later ). “ She ’ s relentless ,” says Carlos Pedro , another one of the state ’ s top birders .
He was one of the first people Jan contacted to help identify what at first glance was a mysterious but very interesting visitor . Once they determined what it was , alarm
52 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l NOVEMBER 2020