Subject: Re First bird of 1997
Date: Jan 3 02:54:25 1997
From: "Martin Muller" - MartinMuller at msn.com


Kristin,

I don't know if I'm the first (I'm on digest mode), but let me welcome you to
tweeters as a participant.

To answer your three questions:

1) No, I haven't seen a Dipper yet this year. Haven't had a chance to get out
either, so I'm not surprised. Certainly didn't see one on the CBC I did
(Seattle, Green Lake and Lake Union; at that time there weren't enough
fast-flowing streams in this area yet... :) )

2) Yes, Rufous-sided and Spotted Towhee are one and the same on the West
Coast. Elsewhere Rufous-sided is now called Eastern Towhee. The latest changes
made to the check-list by the American Ornithologists Union is to "blame" for
that. I'm not aware of any field guides that have been updated on this yet. So
just pencil it in. While you're at it you might also want to change:
Northern Flicker; split into Gilded Flicker and Northern Flicker (both
red-shafted & yellow-shafted).
Scrub Jay: split into Florida, Island and Western Scrub Jay.
Northern Oriole: (again) split into Baltimore and Bullock's Oriole.
of interest elsewhere:
Gray-cheeked Thrush; split into Bicknell's and Gray-cheeked Thrush.
Sharp-tailed Sparrow: split into Nelson's and Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow.

The National Geographic Society field guide actually mentions most of these
"new" species. It even mentions that the western Rufous-sided Towhee was
formerly known as Spotted Towhee.

Welcome to the wonderful world of bird names. The name changes are made for
good reasons, but it does add to the frustration at times.

3) Greater Scaup/Lesser Scaup id. Go for head shape. Long-distance, low-light,
male as well as female this should work. With one caveat: most of the time.
Nobody can identify all the birds all the time...

Anyway. Greater Scaup: greater "smoothness"
Lesser Scaup: lesser "smoothness"
If you look at the profile of the bird, the Greater has a nice smooth rounded
head, with the highest point of the skull above or in front of the eye.
The profile of the Lesser has an irregularity on the border between Crown (top
head) and nape (back head). The highest point of the skull is well behind the
eye.
This works for both male and female of the species.

At closer range you can add the nail (the black spot at the tip of the bill).
In the Greater the nail gets wider towards the tip of the bill. In the Lesser
the nail is fairly straight (and narrow). This only works well head-on and at
fairly close range.

When you see the birds in flight or when they flap their wings, the white bar
near the trailing edge of the wing extends about half-way on the Lesser and
almost three-quarters on the Greater (from body towards tip of wing).

Don't go for head color or body size. Too much variation.
Some field guides tell you to look for the border of the white flank with the
vermiculated pattern (black squiggly lines) on the folded wings. If it's a
clear-cut border supposedly you're looking at a Greater Scaup, if it's diffuse
or smudged a Lesser Scaup. Unfortunately, whenever there is molt going on,
this is not reliable either.

A very useful book that discusses this subject and others that may be
confusing is Ken Kaufmann's Advanced Birding in the Peterson Field Guides
series published by the Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1990.

Good luck and welcome!

Martin Muller, Seattle
martinmuller at msn.com