Joe Neal kindly informed me: Hi Judy — There are no records of which I am aware of nesting Spotted Sandpipers in Arkansas. People have seen apparent pairs late in migration, no evidence of nests.
I was going by the range map from Cornell which shows this as part of their breeding territory. So nesting must be elsewhere.
J
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Judy Griffith <9waterfall9...>
> Subject: Recent Birds
> Date: May 6, 2025 at 11:17:56 AM CDT
> To: The Birds of Arkansas Discussion List <ARBIRD-L...>
>
> Watched a nesting pair of Blue Grosbeaks in one of the pastures this week. Female was on a tree branch discussing something with the male who was balancing on a low shrubby plant with a fat caterpillar in his beak. He bent over into the plants and when he came up the caterpillar was gone... so maybe that’s where their nest is.
>
> Yellow-throated Warblers way up in the Sycamore trees have become more abundant and vocal than they have been for a couple of weeks.
>
> Lincoln’s Sparrows sing every morning. Eastern Towhees and Blue-winged Warblers nest hidden in deep tangled patches of Coralberry and Greenbrier.
>
> Male and female Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are coming to the feeders before continuing north to their nesting grounds, and Baltimore Orioles visit the Tulip Poplar flowers as well as the grape jelly.
>
> Heard a first-of-season, “Quick, Free Beer! Quick, Free Beer!” from an Olive-sided Flycatcher perched in the canopy of an Oak while I was planting tomatoes yesterday.
>
> Don got several good photos of a Spotted Sandpiper as it bobbed and foraged along a gravel bar hunting invertebrates at the edge of Piney Creek far downstream from Ninestone. Today I learned from Cornell that they breed and nest here.
>
> Acadian Flycatchers are back. Eastern Wood Peewees are calling. Common Yellowthroats, Yellow-breasted Chats, Summer and Scarlet Tanagers sing with the Great-crested Flycatchers and Indigo Buntings.
>
> And one or two Chuck-will's-widows can be heard every night from under the native short-leaf pines or from across the creek where the forest meets the west glade.
>
> Judith
> Ninestone, Carroll County
>
>
>
