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Re: Curlew Sandpiper(s) at the beach



  hi,

>>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.
>  

Well, I have banded thousands of Dunlins and Curlews some birds have 
surprisingly similar bills. It is not only where the bill seems to be 
curved, it is also how thick is the base of it, and how are relations 
between the bill and a head of the bird.  Looking at the Nearctic 
subspecies of Dunlin I wouldn't care much about bill shape as important 
ID feature to separate Dunlin and Curlew Sandp. on this side of the 
Atlantic.

>>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.
>  

What do you mean "hint"? Adults changing red featheres on the underpants 
into white ones. It means moulting adult in advanced moult (if it has 
all upperparts already in winter plumage) stage can show red feathers 
here and there as defuse patches which is very different from what one 
could call "tinge" or "hint". So if bird had some tinge or other very 
diffuse worm coloration on underparts then it couldn't be adult Curlew.

>>Juvenile Curlew Sandpipers don't have "gray back and
>>scapulars" - that sounds like a nonbreeding adult.
>>    
>>
>It had a basic plumaged adult back.
>  

Winter plumage of Curlew Sand is lighter than Dunlin and that should be 
well visible if it was a bird in a flock of Dunlins.

>  
>
>>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?
>
>  

As I mentioned above: a hint of breeding plumage of adult would be more 
or less solitary patches of break-red color on white background of 
underparts, not a cinnamon belly.

>>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.
>
>  

 From 15 yards (ca 13 meters) white supercilium should be more than well 
visible.
Sometimes it is very hard to tell the rump color in walking shorebirds. 
In truth it is not a rump which is white, it is a white patch on 
uppertail coverts. Sometimes in "black rumped" Sandpipers (like Dunlin) 
white sides of the edges of the tail may fluffy up and then  could be 
seen as distinct white patch in the base of the tail. That could be easy 
misidentify as white rump or white undertail.

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

It is always worthy to submit strange looking and non-identified 
shorebirds with good description. Our knowledge will be better in a few 
years and then it will be a chance for records like that. If you are 
sure it WASN'T a Dunlin then just make description and let it go! The 
Rarities Committee will have some study to be done, and that is OK. I am 
saying that as a former member of Rarities Committee of the small 
european country...

Mike.

-- 
************************************************
Michal Skakuj  Ph.D.
2420 Perkins Rd.
Durham, NC 27705
phone:        919 402 9961
mobile phone: 919 599 3040