Rare Bird Sightings

To post rare sightings from Piute Ponds on this site please contact Wanda Deal at wanda.deal@edwards.af.mil or Mark Hagan at mark.hagan@edwards.af.mil

Another rare sighting at Piute Ponds reported by Kimbal Garrett on July 23, 2011 and photographed (above) by Mark Scheel. The larger bird is a little stint. For video by Steve Sosensky click here. He was seen again on the 24th and 25. These birds are native to Africa and Asia and have only been sighted 3 times in California this year and this is one.

Considered by some to be a vagrant here in the desert, they breed in Arctic Europe and are sometimes seen in Australia and North America.

Godwits sighted on the north side of the north pond and the northwest side of the north Ducks Unlimited Pond in the south. First sighted May 14, 2010 through May 27, 2010.

These birds attracted scads of attention when they were first sighted at Piute, 30 years ago, (1980) and again in 2010.