October 19th, 2005. Hatfield/Whately, MA.
| Unidentified Sandpipers Calidris sp (2 juveniles).
| Update Nov 2nd - In
the light of the highly contradictory opinions that we've received on
these sandpipers, we've decided to refer to these birds only as "The
Whately Sandpipers". However, the text from the initial alert remains
below. Click here to go straight to Killian Mullarney's detailed anlaysis
in favor of White-rumped Sandpiper.
| Comments
- Mark Taylor and I have been quite surprised by the reactions to the
images presented here. The identification regarding Baird’s Sandpiper
has been questioned quite seriously with other suggestions including
Pectoral and White-rumped Sandpipers. Both of these species were
present at the same site on the same date, and also in the preceding
days. The images are not the best for identification purposes but even
so, Mark and I remain convinced that the shorebirds depicted here are
Baird’s Sandpipers. Despite the bird in the foreground showing a
reasonable pectoral band, we would have thought the black legs rule out
Pectoral Sandpiper as well as the lack of rusty tones, mantle stripes
and brightly fringed feathers to the upperparts. In the Photographic
Guide to the ‘Shorebirds of North America’ (2005), Dennis Paulson
mentions that “Juvenile Baird’s with heavily streaked breast on buffy
ground color fairly sharply set off from white belly could be mistaken
for juvenile Pectoral, but black legs and scaly back distinctive”.
White-rumped Sandpiper could be a bit more tricky to rule out but would
be expected to show more rufous tinged upperparts (especially the upper
scapulars), crown and rear cheeks, contrasting with the grayer tones on
the nape, breast sides and head. White-rumped might also be expected to
show a more prominent, evenly white supercilium, whereas the bird at the rear
of the main shot shows an uneven, subdued supercilum, with a prominent
white spot just above the lores. We feel that this feature is better
suited to Baird’s Sandpiper.
To compare images of both species, I’ve put together a couple of pages
of juveniles. The images taken were within days of each other in
mid-October
on the New Hampshire coast, about the same time of year that Mark took
his images in Whately. There’s a rather marked difference in
appearance between the two species, although it could be argued that
the juvenile White-rumped is a rather bright individual. Here's the
October juvenile Baird’s.
It would be good to finalize the identification of the Whately birds as
the record is of some importance. Seth Kellogg quotes only three
historical records for the month of October in Western Massachusetts,
and only one of those is later than this report, on October 22nd 1989 (Harvey Allen).
Feedback and opinion is always welcome!
| A nice late season shorebird find for Mark Taylor. Seven weeks earlier Mark found a small flock of Buff-breasted Sandpipers in the very same fields, birds which stayed long enough to be enjoyed by many local birders. These two Baird's Sandpipers apparently flew in whilst Mark was watching other shorebirds at the former Pilgrim airfield.
| | Images appear by courtesy of Mark Taylor. |
|
