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Re: Curlew Sandpiper(s) at the beach



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nathan Dias" <diasn@yahoo.com>
To: "Jack" <ppaw@sccoast.net>; "carolinabirds" <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2003 1:07 PM
Subject: Curlew Sandpiper(s) at the beach


> Had I known that we would
> be looking for Curlew Sandpiper on a shoreline of
> beach sand and shells piled up a few hundred yards
> from the open ocean, I wouldn't have made the trip.  I
> could see maybe a storm-blown refugee or super-tired
> migrant briefly falling onto a sandbar beside the
> beach, but the concept of repeated visits by one/two
> Curlew Sandpiper(s) to the area at the base of the
> Huntington Beach Jetty seems fantastic.
>
> The famous bird at the Yawkey center in 1992 was where
> one would expect a Curlew Sandpiper in SC - in a
> semi-drained freshwater waterfowl impoundment.
Yes, and I saw this bird also.

It appears you were at the wrong place.  The bird was not at the base of
the jetty.  It was past the beach renourished area along the inlet and
on the south west corner where a tidal creek leads from-to the second
pond.  There is a mini habitat there of mudflat with pools of water.
> Regarding the description:
>
> The prominent white supercilium should have been
> clearly visible, no ifs ands or buts.
I agree
> "...decurved bill especially about mid length when it
> appeared to have a sharper bend (at times looking as
> if it were kinked)"
>
> The literature descibes Curlew Sandpipers as having
> "more evenly decurved" bills than Dunlin (Hayman,
> Marchant & Prater p. 380 and 381). It did but, so do some Dunlin based
on my own personal experience. However, I have never seen a Dunlin with
the kinked appearance that the bird I saw had (see the bills that the
Curlews labeled 205a & b have on p206.) It was like those bills.
>
> Question: are you saying it was a juvenile bird or an
> adult?  Adults are way into nonbreeding plumage now
> and Juveniles retain their plumage though November.
> So there shouldn't be any crossover issues of Juvenile
> going into adult plumage or molting adults.

That is a generalization which is probably fraught with exceptions.

In retrospect I believe it was a non-breeding adult with just a hint of
breeding plumage on the belly.  I did tell Sharon that I thaught it was
a juvenile changing to non-breeding adult.
> Juvenile Curlew Sandpipers don't have "gray back and
> scapulars" - that sounds like a nonbreeding adult.
It had a basic plumaged adult back.
> Juveniles have dark brownish mantle, scapulars and
> tertials (see H.M.P. p. 382) and the dark brown/red
> cap is very visible and contrasts heavily with the
> whitish supercilium.
>
> But "whitish underparts showing a mellow cinammon
> cast" sounds like the buff wash on the breast of a
> juvenile, not the distinctive rufous neck, breast and
> belly of an adult, which would be long gone by now.
 It wasn't buff, it was cinammon on the belly, and mellow from breast
into belly, and distinct when viewed in the scope but not with my bins.
Why wouldn't an adult show a hint of breeding plumage on the belly in
early October?

> How long and how well did y'all see the bird?

The bird was seen for about a minute or two at about 15 yards as it fed
on the wet mud at the edge of some water. I was looking through the
scope at the bird when it and a few western sandpiper spooked and I did
not get on the bird but Bob did and he noted the white rump.

> If I were on the SCBRC, given the location/habitat
> type, date and the contradictory details given,  I
> would want to examine a photo to accept this one.
The bird was not photographed.

I was going to submit details to the SCBRC but given your comments will
not do so.

Jack Peachey
Conway, SC