john@nmt.edu (John Shipman) (11/07/90)
Sometimes you just have to drop everything and go birdwatching. I was planning on a relaxing Sunday, spending the day making dinner for a group of friends around 7. At 2 in the afternoon, I figured I had plenty of time to pick recipes, shop and cook. The day before, I had gotten word that someone had sighted an odd shorebird at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, which is about twenty miles south of my home in central New Mexico. I figured it wasn't that rare, and I could miss seeing it. But just for fun, just before I went to the store, I called the person who had seen the bird. We had a long discussion on the field marks of the bird. He said that the bird was quite rare and he was hoping that someone else could go and confirm the sighting. So, what the heck, I can push dinner back a bit---I grabbed my gear and headed for the refuge. I went to the spot where he saw it, and there didn't seem to be any shorebirds around. So I just sort of scanned around looking for any kind of shorebird. He said it was with some dowitchers, so when I found a group of birds that appeared in the glasses to be dowitchers, I got out the scope and started to scan that area. By some kind of dumb luck, I almost immediately found a candidate in my scope field. I started to write a description. I was looking at a medium-sized shorebird, length about halfway between Western Sandpiper and Long-billed Dowitcher. The bird was feeding actively, talking about four steps a second---much slower than a peep, but faster than a yellowlegs. The general size and shape were about the same as a Pectoral Sandpiper. Projecting the axis of the bill through the head, the head and bill were about the same length; the bill was black, not too thick, pretty much straight with a hint of a droop at the end. But the plumage was all wrong for a Pectoral. The crown showed a strong reddish cast. There was a prominent white line over the eye that got slightly wider behind the eye. While Pectorals always have a brown streaky chest that terminates cleanly at the top of the white belly, this bird had a warm buff chest devoid of streaking, the buff fading gradually to a white belly. There was a bit of dark streaking off to the sides of the chest, but none in the middle. The legs were yellow. The feathering of the upper back looked scaly, the feathers having dark centers and buff margin. A little later I found a Pectoral, and it looked very different. No rust on the head, no noticeable eyeline, chest sharply delineated. Figured it out yet? Okay, I said to myself, I just got my lifer Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. Also happened to be my 350th species in New Mexico. I was wondering exactly how rare it was in the state. I got home and checked the references. Holy Toledo, it's a first state record! Dinner was late. Oh well. -- John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, NM/john@jupiter.nmt.edu ``Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.'' --Dave Farber
sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu (Daan Sandee) (11/07/90)
In article <1990Nov7.074024.2192@nmt.edu> john@nmt.edu (John Shipman) writes: >Sometimes you just have to drop everything and go birdwatching. > ..... >But the plumage was all wrong for a Pectoral. The crown showed a >strong reddish cast. There was a prominent white line over the >eye that got slightly wider behind the eye. While Pectorals >always have a brown streaky chest that terminates cleanly at the >top of the white belly, this bird had a warm buff chest devoid of >streaking, the buff fading gradually to a white belly. There was >a bit of dark streaking off to the sides of the chest, but none >in the middle. The legs were yellow. The feathering of the >upper back looked scaly, the feathers having dark centers and >buff margin. >A little later I found a Pectoral, and it looked very different. No >rust on the head, no noticeable eyeline, chest sharply delineated. >Okay, I said to myself, I just got my lifer Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. >Also happened to be my 350th species in New Mexico. >I was wondering exactly how rare it was in the state. I got home >and checked the references. Holy Toledo, it's a first state >record! >-- >John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, NM/john@jupiter.nmt.edu Congratulations ... There was one in Monterey lately, and I tried hard, but the only bird I found wasn't good enough. A group of pectorals with one bird looking and behaving differently : russet brown above, buff breast, distinct eyestripe, but unfortunately, very distinct streaking on breast, just like a pectoral. Didn't know what to call it, really, but I privately think it was a sharptail/pectoral hybrid. I can't even be sure that this wasn't the bird that was reported as a sh.t. ; but I *am* sure that this was the bird that many people saw *after* the first report and happily added to their life list ... A much worse dilemma on the same trip was when, on a pelagic trip out of Bodega Bay led by Rich Stallcup, he and I and a dozen other people saw what appeared to be a Townsend's Shearwater - would be first N.Am. record, but unfortunately nobody had a camera ready, so it's not going to be accepted. Now my problem is : can I put a bird on my list that ABA is not going to accept as a N.Am. bird? Answer : no. (I *do* count my Masked Tityra in the hope that they'll get around to accepting it - only about a hundred people have photographs of that one). Next question : if and when ABA (based on another observation) does put Townsend's on the list, can I count my bird? Answer : yes (as long as the consensus of the experts who saw it, and reported it, is still that it was a T.S.). So there's still hope. Otherwise, the more thrilling experiences of eleven days in California were a Garganey and an earthquake. Daan Sandee sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu Supercomputer Computations Research Institute Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052 (904) 644-7045