August 2002 Field Journal 8.4 Semipalmated Sandpiper continues at Crissy Lagoon
Late this afternoon, I headed out to Crissy Lagoon to check out Hugh and Paul's sighting. I arrived and found no peeps whatsoever. After walking all the way around the lagoon and having at least two SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS and a SONG SPARROW (wasn't Josiah interested in this?), I returned to where I parked for one more scan of the extreme eastern lobe of the lagoon. I immediately found several 7-10 small calidrids that were not present when I began my peregrinations.My initial observations were rather disjointed; the birds were very flighty allowing looks of only several seconds before moving about the lagoon. Additionally, five to ten minutes into my observation, at least four of them flew off to the west in the company of a KILLDEER, much to my chagrin. I was left with three peeps that became much less flighty as the light started to deteriorate. One was an obvious LEAST SANDPIPER, one was a slightly atypical WESTERN SANDPIPER, with a bill that approached Dunlin-esque proportions and appeared to have significant primary projection, and the third was obviously (and fortuitously) the bird that Hugh and Paul saw. I proceeded to watch to this bird under deteriorating light conditions but fortunately in improving wind conditions for 15-20 minutes.
Description:
A small calidrid of the same size as the Western and Least Sandpiper in whose immediately company it was. Compared to the Western Sandpiper, I judged the bird to be slightly more compact and less obviously "horizontal"; morphologically, it was closer to the Least Sandpiper. The bill was stunningly short; compared to the (female?) Western, the bill was perhaps 60-70% of the length. Also, the bill showed no noticeable curvature; the impression was tubular with a hint of slightly bulbous tip. At one point both the Least and this bird were immediately adjacent to each other; I judged the bill of this bird to be shorter than the Least and did not show even the very slight droop of the Least's bill.The face was very well marked. The eyeline was quite prominent and dark, showing strong contrast with respect to the supercilium and the lower face. The supercilium did show a "jog" as it crossed the eye, i.e. it did not continue in a straight line or smooth curve all the way across the top of the auricular region, which itself was noticeably dusky. The supercilium did widen behind the eye and strongly contrasted with the cap and did appear to be split. The cap was tinged rufous and showed strong dark or black streaking throughout the cap.
The breast was quite pale; the upper breast was washed pale buff and the sides of upper breast were faintly streaked. I noticed no other markings on the otherwise uniformly pale underparts. The scapulars and mantle feathers had white terminal marks, very dark or black centers, paler near the upper part of the feather. The tips of the outer webs of the mantle feathers appeared slightly buffy, while the tips of the outer webs of the scapulars were tinged rufous. The overall impression was quite scaly without the obvious rufous scapulars found on the Western Sandpiper, but rather the merest hint of rufous in the scapulars. The greater and median (and lesser?) coverts were less dark than the scapulars with pale edges, though they did not show strong contrast relative to the scapulars.
The tertials extended all the way to the tips of the primaries; my recollection is that the centers were fairly dark though not black, but I could be mistaken about this. The legs were dark and the bird was not noticed to have vocalized. At one point the Western and this bird tussled in an apparent dispute over feeding territory.
Analysis:
There are four small calidrids with dark legs; Little and Red-necked Stints and Semipalmated and Western Sandpipers. The bird was clearly not in basic plumage given the various warm tones throughout its plumage. The adult stints can be eliminated by the absence of any rufous on the face. Adult Semipalmated Sandpiper can be eliminated by the almost total lack of streaking on the breast and the warm tones to the plumage. Adult Western Sandpiper would also show quite a bit of streaking on the breast and flanks.Thus, we're left with juvenile plumaged birds. Juvenile Little Stint should show white mantle and scapular vees and greater coverts with black centers, both of which are not particularly good for this bird. Juvenile Red-necked Stint should show lower scapulars contrastingly dull gray fringed white and this bird did not show contrast between the upper and lower scapulars. As well, both stints should show long primary projection, which was not seen on this bird.
After our foray into stint-land, we're left with the juvenile sandpipers. Juvenile Western Sandpiper should show a slightly drooping bill with a rather fine tip that averages longer than a Semipalmated Sandpiper, grayish crown possibly tinged rusty, contrasting grayish lower scapulars with dark anchor-shaped subterminal markings, some suggestion of mantle and scapular vees and breast washed warm orange-buff with sharply defined streaking. Juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper should show a deep based and blunt tipped bill averaging shorter than Western Sandpiper, crown streaked dark brown or gray, upperparts grayish-brown fringed buff or pale rufous giving a scaly effect, mantle and scapular vees faint or lacking, anchor-shaped subterminal marks to lower scapulars and breast washed buff with extensive lateral streaking often extending across the center. The bill structure, crown, mantle and scapular pattern and breast pattern all are better for juvenile SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER.
8.18 Yuba Pass Region
BUFFLEHEAD 5 at Squaw Lake (Aug 18)
SPOTTED SANDPIPER? at Hwy. 49 (Aug 18)
PILEATED WOODPECKER? at Chapman Creek (Aug 18)
OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER 2 at Squaw Lake (Aug 18)Bufflehead (5)
Osprey (4)
Mountain Quail (1)
Spotted Sandpiper (2)
Anna's Hummingbird (3)
Calliope Hummingbird (3)
Rufous Hummingbird (3)
Hairy Woodpecker (5)
Northern Flicker (4)
Pileated Woodpecker (1)
Olive-sided Flycatcher (5)
Violet-green Swallow (5)
Mountain Chickadee (5)
House Wren (5)
Orange-crowned Warbler (5)
Nashville Warbler (5)
Wilson's Warbler (5)Locations:
1) Chapman Creek (Aug 18)
2) Hwy. 49 (Aug 18)
3) Bassett's (Aug 18)
4) Gold Lake (Aug 18)
5) Squaw Lake (Aug 18)8.24/25 Santa Barbara and Monterey Counties
SNOWY PLOVER juv at Salinas Sewer Ponds (Aug 25)
SOLITARY SANDPIPER flew in at Harkins Slough (Aug 25)
PECTORAL SANDPIPER 2 at Moonglow (Aug 25)
XANTUS'S MURRELET hypoluca at Santa Barbara Deepwater (Aug 24)45 species seen:
Pied-billed Grebe (3)
Black-footed Albatross (1)
Pink-footed Shearwater (1)
Sooty Shearwater (1)
Leach's Storm-Petrel (1)
Ashy Storm-Petrel (1)
American White Pelican (4)
Brandt's Cormorant (1)
Great Egret (3)
Snowy Egret (2, 3)
Green Heron (4)
Black-crowned Night-Heron (4)
Canada Goose (2)
Gadwall (2, 3)
Mallard (2)
Cinnamon Teal (2, 3)
Green-winged Teal (3)
Snowy Plover (2)
Killdeer (2)
Black-necked Stilt (4)
Solitary Sandpiper (4)
Willet (3)
Long-billed Curlew (3)
Marbled Godwit (2, 3)
Western Sandpiper (2)
Least Sandpiper (2)
Pectoral Sandpiper (3)
Short-billed Dowitcher (2)
Wilson's Phalarope (2)
Red-necked Phalarope (1, 2, 3)
Pomarine Jaeger (1)
Long-tailed Jaeger (1)
Heermann's Gull (1)
Caspian Tern (3)
Royal Tern (1)
Arctic Tern (1)
Xantus's Murrelet (1)
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (3)
Brown-headed Cowbird (1)
Blue Whale sp. (1)
Fin Whale sp. (1)
Calif. Sea Lion sp. (1)
Common Porpoise sp. (1)
Pac. White-sided Dolphin sp. (1)
Elephant Seal sp. (1)Locations:
1) Santa Barbara Deepwater (Aug 24)
2) Salinas (Aug 25)
3) Moonglow (Aug 25)
4) Harkins Slough (Aug 25)8.29 Seabirds of the World Errata
I found a few correction marked in my copy:129 - Actually Masatierra Petrel
132 - Apparently Cook's
135 - Cook'sNote the tail pattern on plate 129 differs from the others.
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