Subject: Re: Sharp-tailed Sandpiper - YES!! (also)
Date: Jul 5 14:58:03 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


Mike Smith wrote:

I was also curious about the plumage, as it didn't appear to be the
>adult alternate plumage described in many guides. The bird was Pectoral
>size and shaped, with a broad white supercilium, rufous cap, white chin,
>buffy-reddish breast, and a few streak marks on the flanks, just below the
>wings, and a few thin streaks near the nape, small bill. Having never
>seen an adult Sharp-tailed before, I had looked through the sources I have
>(NGS, Peterson's, Hayman et al., Audubon's 'Master Guide', and Paulson) to
>get an idea of what it would look like. The bold chevrons and streaks
>down the breast and on the belly were definitely *not* present on this
>bird. I thought maybe it was just me, but Nigel saw the same thing when I
>asked him. We agreed it did not look like the adult plumage bird in
>Hayman et al. (plate 82, 200a) or the Audubon Master Guide (vol. 1,
>p.390), the NGS guide adult (p.134), or the Peterson adult (p. 147).
>There were just a few streaks on the flanks. Dennis (in his book) says
>the Peterson guide is much too dull to depict adult plumage. The
>Crockett Lake bird looked to me much more like the juvenile plumages
>described and pictured. However, seems to me that a juvenile would be
>unlikely in early July (the parents would have been on eggs by late May,
>right? Seems unlikely). I assume then that this is an Alternate I bird,
>not a definitive adult. My only previous experience with this species is
>a single juvenile in Prudhoe Bay, AK, Aug. 25 1991.

>From the literature, all Sharp-tails are thought to migrate north in their
first year to breed, as the bird essentially disappears from Australia
during the northern summer, unlike many other shorebirds, in which quite a
few first-year birds can be found. This implies that there may not be a
first-alternate plumage, but I have been unable to find out anything more
about this. As you wrote, it almost surely couldn't be a juvenile. Anyone
get any photos? Or of the chocolate peep?

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416