Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge

Dawn and I hoped to find the Ruff today (a shorebird that has been seen at Ankeny recently), but we did not. We saw lots of shorebirds, most of which I could not identify. When someone tells me what they are, I'll caption them.

I could identify the peregrine falcon that sat high in a dead tree, keeping watch over all.

                                                       It was a gray day, so I lightened it.

The Great Egrets were easy to recognize... we saw many.

After getting thoroughly chilled at the pull-out by the railroad tracks where the Ruff and its Yellowlegs companions had been seen, we drove to the boardwalk through trees where the wind was not so brutal. Eagle Eye Dawn spotted a Red-breasted Sapsucker along there. I had a hard time finding it in my viewfinder, then holding my heavy camera still for a photo, then getting a picture when the sapsucker's head wasn't hidden. All are a bit blurry. The clearest one has a branch through the bird's head.

We drove on to the Acorn Woodpecker site, where we found no woodpeckers, or anything else moving about in the cold wind and drizzle. So we went onward to the kiosk and there found a zillion birds, including a distant, lone, Greater White-fronted Goose. It was grazing as it walked and not often picking it's head up for a photo.

One Dowitcher was close enough for a reasonable photo... so I took lots of them, front, back and sideways.

I do not know what the rest of these shorebirds are. I await input from knowledgeable folks.

My guess is Western Sandpipers

My guess is Dunlin

Any id help would be appreciated.