On Wed, 5 Jul 1995, JIM NESTLER wrote:
> As I look at Hayman et al., the bird I saw looked like a cross
> between 200b and 200c (plate 82). The buffy breast was evident, as
> were the chestnut-fringed feathers on the back. I could not make out
> a distinct white throat, though I tried. The broadening supercilium
> did not seem as bright as in the juvenile pictures, but was
> definitely present. I agree with Mike Smith that the flanks and
> breast/belly were NOT heavily streaked, though a few marks were
> evident on the flanks.

but Russell Rogers then writes:
>I just got a call from Steve Pink. He saw the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at
>Crockett Lake this evening at around 7:00 PM. He said that the bird that
>he saw was clearly in adult plumage.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All right, what's going on here? If 2 people are seeing an
adult-plumaged bird (Steve Pink and Steve Mlodinow), and 3 are seeing
what might be an alternate 1 (assuming Sharp-tails have such a plumage),
what's the dang deal? The bird Nigel and I saw, and the one the Jim
describes above, is clearly not an adult, yet both Steves (above) say it's
clearly in adult plumage. I hesitate to suggest this, but maybe,
perhaps, just possibly, this is 2 birds?

-------------
Michael R. Smith
Univ. of Washington, Seattle
whimbrel at u.washington.edu
http://salmo.cqs.washington.edu/~wagap/mike.html