Perfect morning yesterday (Oct 30th) with overcast skies and very little shimmer because of cold temps. Scored a LALO past the liar and a sweet lineup of unidentified birds including 3 Podiceps, 3 Pluvialis and a single Calidris. Bing, bing, boom.Also had 2 Asio heading south at dusk.
The photo is from 10/29 and shows what Portage Point looks like at 60x. The insert shows a bridge too far.
Trick or Treat
You wish you had a Sharp-tailed Calidrid. My smell test says TRICK not treat.
ReplyDeletePutzy, what are you talking about??
ReplyDeleteOK then, write it up. But beware of Sharp-pectoraled Sandpiper hybrids.
ReplyDeleteLook closely at the arrow; see the two bumps? That's a Pectoral next to a Dunlin on Portage Point. The bridge too far is remarking on the fact that although I can see shorebirds on the sandbar from the liar the distance so far proves too challenging to actually separating the species for the yardlist.....hence Calidris sp. The close-up of the two was taken on the Point before I ran home to try to see them from the yard.
ReplyDeleteNo sharp-tailed sandpipers involved in this post.
Nice break-away, Joe! It'll be a stretch for me to keep up with you now. But you never know....
ReplyDeleteAll right all right, treat, not trick. I figured you took the photo from AK or something, and the side-by-side seemed like an attempt to contrast the underparts patterns of PESA and an equally sized Calidrid lacking horizontal demarcation, to suggest STAS. I'll never assume trickery from you again...
ReplyDeletelemme spell it out for you Putzy.....
ReplyDeleteSwamp Kat is calling you out for ever suggesting that in comparing a Baird's Sandpiper to a Dunlin (as being noticeably smaller), that one could mistake a Pectoral Sandpiper as a Baird's! One should not invoke a possible Pectoral Sandpiper as a possible species of confusion as there is no way in hell an experienced observer would ever see a calidrid smaller then a Dunlin and think they were seeing a Pect
by the way Joe......
ReplyDelete3 Podiceps, WEAK!
3 Pluvialis, WEAKER!!
and a single Calidris. WEAKEST!!!!!
Skye, in all fairness to Caleb - he's wasn't buying the runt Pectoral Sandpiper/Baird's Sandpiper overlap related to that "other matter".
ReplyDeleteThe blog post really was to point out that no matter how "hard" I have worked at getting some shorebirds on my yardlist it has proven to be really difficult......I was also hedging against the invariable backlash I was going to receive from WEAK! (#159), WEAKER!! (#160), and WEAKEST!!! (#161). It almost feels like cheating....
Though a Fregata sp. or Jaeger sp. or alcid sp. wouldn't be all bad, would it?!
First, I love the intensity, Kat. You really don't want to lose!
ReplyDeleteAs for you Haaser, since you took us down that path: the literature shows that many female PESA (a heavily sexually dimorphic species) are much lighter (down to 41g) than DUNL (avg 64 g in Copper River delta AK) with smaller wing chords: 120mm (PESA) and 122mm (DUNL), so unless diagnostic plumage traits are offered you don't have enough... And I agree that an experienced observer shouldn't be making that error since the species look so different.
And finally- I couldn't say that I considered Podiceps and Pluvialis weak, since they are both still Kent Co ticks for me. You coastal guys don't know how great you have it!
Lose what??
ReplyDeleteThe year yardbird competition.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a casual competition - wer'e all winners here Caleb. Kiss the ring.
ReplyDelete