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August 2009

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From:
David Irons <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
David Irons <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 22 Aug 2009 23:56:41 -0700
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Greetings All,

While Bill Norton's images are impeccable, the birds in this series of photos include a juv. Semipalmated Sandpiper (already pointed out by Jen Brumfield) and a very fresh juvenile Least Sandpiper. 

While the Semi is on the bright (colorful) end of the spectrum for this species, there can be no debate over the presence of palmation (webbing) between the toes. I would add that the smudgy dark eyeline and auriculars and bill shape seem just right for a Semipalmated Sandpiper.

I did a web search of juv. Little Stint images and compared them to this bird and other images I have of juv. Semipalmateds and noticed another subtle difference between these birds. Juvenile Little Stints (at least the ones I looked at) have consistently longer and more attenuated wing covert and scapular feathers than Semipalmated Sandpipers, whose scaps and wing coverts tend to be shorter and more blunt-tipped. I don't recall reading that this is the case in studying these birds in the past, but from the images I looked at, this difference in feather shape seems to hold true. 

Additionally, on the Little Stints these same feathers seemed to have more extensive black feather centers with narrower white and rufous edges. On the Semis, the black centers were less extensive, a bit more anchor-shaped, and tended to be black only towards the tip of the feather. Further up the feather shaft, the centers looked more charcoal gray or paler yet and the white and buffy edges seem to be a bit broader, perhaps contributing to the more scaly look to the upperparts of Semis.

Despite much writing, multiple ID articles, and several recently published photo guides to shorebirds, peep/stint separation remains tricky business. Though we don't get anything approaching the number of Semipalmated Sandpipers in Oregon that you see in the East, I think we benefit from the fact that they are still unusual enough that we don't take them for granted. Hence, they get a second and even third look around here. This being the case, I think many of our more seasoned local birders have pretty good handle on the range of variation hatch-year Semis can show this time of year.

Oregon birders are far more likely to be thrown off track by a short-billed or overly bright juv. Western Sandpiper (we get tens of thousands of these) or a winter-plumaged adult Western or Least Sandpiper that shows up with a big flock of bright juvs in August or early September. Just last week, I got an e-mail with an attached jpg. of a  "mystery shorebird" from some very experienced Oregon birders. They were wondering if their bird might be a Temminck's Stint. It was nothing more than a dingy gray-brown adult Least that was already fully molted into basic plumage. The problem was that it was hanging with a flock of fresh juvenile Leasts like the one in Bill Norton's images, thus it looked quite odd. 

Even after 30+ years of studying small Calidrids, I occasionally catch a mild (and usually brief) case of "stint fever." It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of a potential mega-rarity and we are all inclined to lose a bit of our objectivity when all our birding mates are exchanging high-fives at the local shorebird hotspot. 

Good luck on sorting things out with this potential stint,

Dave Irons
Content Editor BirdFellow.com

--- On Sat, 8/22/09, Craig Holt <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Craig Holt <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [Ohio-birds] Conneaut update & professional-quality stint photos
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Saturday, August 22, 2009, 1:31
 AM

I got permission from nature photographer Bill Norton tonight for everyone to view his striking shots of the juv. LITTLE STINT at Conneaut 8/19/09.  View them at http://www.nortonwi.com/RareOhioBird/ and decide for yourselves.  I've heard and read a lot of "stuff" about this bird already, especially on rarebird.org.  All of the "stuff" was based on average-quality (at best) photos which I didn't take or post or vouch for.  Also I find it very odd that people who didn't see the actual bird, or hear it, or note the structure (especially the long legs), or study the VERY DISTINCTIVE FEEDING BEHAVIOR, etc. feel the need to put their 2 cents in on the bird's ID.  The Ohio Bird Records Committee will make the final decision on this bird anyways.  So there's my rant for tonight.......So today at Conneaut the stint could not be
 found, there were however plenty of interesting birds there:  5 blue-winged teal, 2 green herons, great egret, 9+ bald eagles, 8
 black-bellied plovers, semipalmated plovers (FOS juv.), greater and lesser yellowlegs (all juvs.), spotted sandpipers, 10 ruddy turnstones, 20 sanderlings (FOS juv.), 15+ semipalmated sandpipers, least sandpipers, pectoral sandpiper, 7 stilt sandpipers (FOS juvs.), short-billed dowitcher (FOS juv.), 2 Wilson's snipes, 4 Caspian terns, black tern, 3+ soras, belted kingfisher, and a flyover flock of 7 horned larks.  Different species I saw on Wednesday 8/19 here included least bittern, 4 Am. avocets, ad. Baird's sandpiper, 14 Forster's terns, and a few purple martins.  Later, Craig



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Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
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