Back to my Alaska trip... One of the pleasures of a visit to Nome is seeing familiar birds in unfamiliar places. In Oregon, during migration, or occasionally as wintering birds, Western Sandpipers are observed as waders along beaches and shorelines, or in wet fields. This female and several others nearby, on June 15, were tending chicks that had hatched perhaps just a day or two earlier. The males were hanging out on the other side of the Sinuk River about 26 miles northwest of Nome.