This is an fairly rare but regular migrant in California, more common in the interior and deserts than along the coast. The species avoids salt or brackish water and prefers fresh water and sewer ponds. This individual lived up to its name, by being the only shorebird in this flooded but rapidly drying field.
Two subspecies are usually recognized. Nominate T. s. solitaria breeds in Eastern Canada while T. s. cinnamomea breeds in Alaska and Western Canada. Both migrate through the US, wintering in South America, but cinnamomea is the expected race in California. It is larger, paler on the back, has broader dark bars on the tail and tends to lack the distinct solid dark lore stripe of nominate solitaria. This individual has the speckled lore stripe and bold tail pattern typical of cinnamomea but it's not always easy to distinguish these subspecies in the field.
Special thanks to Dominik Mosur for finding this bird and telling us about it.
Digiscoped with Panasonic DMC-LZ5 | Nikon FieldScope 3 | 30X WA | hand-held (no adapter)