Hi Tweeters,

Replying to Mike Smith, Dennis Paulson says:

>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?

The chance of juvenile Sharp-tailed Sandpipers (SHSA) at this time of year
is about the same as this bird being the issue of a virgin birth :-). SHSA
are a pretty punctual bird in their southbound migration through Vancouver
BC, something we know with a good deal of certainty because a lot of birders
are scanning shore bird areas for the weeks previous during the shorebird
migration, so coverage of its arrival has been good the last decade or so.
The 13-yr. average arrival date of SHSA in Vancouver BC is September 11.

Apart from a single-observer spring migration report from Iona in the early
80's with Pectoral Sandpipers (PESA), and another single-obs in the late
80's, again during an unusually-strong PESA northward migration, *all* our
SHSA to this point have been juvs.

Is there a similar pattern of the 1st yr. birds clearing the winter areas in
SHSA's nearest N Amer. relative, PESA? And, ye cats, how could you tell with
a bird with as little plumage variation as PESA?

I've looked and looked but, alas, there are no chocolate peeps on the candy
racks of Vancouver BC. What the heck are they?

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
michael_price at mindlink.bc.ca