Hi Tweets

This evening, while chewing on the problem of just how to get an American
Oystercatcher Haematopus palliatus from the Atlantic Coast across the
continent to the shoreline of Washington State, the question came up for me:
what if it's not American Oystercatcher after all, but Eurasian
Oystercatcher H. ostralegus, "highly migratory" to quote 'Shorebirds'
(Hayman et al)? It would be the same situation as Long-billed Murrelet
Brachyramphus perdix but in reverse.

Here's some blue-sky speculation. Let's assume it's a nominate Eurasian of
the Western Palearctic race 'ostralegus' and was weather-transported (to
keep it legit) or wandered across to North America. It has shown some
propensities for travelling as a vagrant to the NW (Greenland,
Newfoundland). It heads NW into Arctic Canada, moseys along aross the
coastline, and upon feeling mighty blasts of frigid air, does whatever any
sensible shorebird does, gets the hell S quickly to where the water stays
open, but also heads W to where it knows the ocean is: if it looks for a
coast it knows that all it has to do is fly west and eventually it will pick
up the entrancing aroma of sun-simmered coconut oil. Well, it will find the
coast alright, though in Cascadia, but will have to take a bye on the
sunbathing for a couple more months.

In case of relocation, how to tell? Basic-plumaged American 'palliatus'
will have a black back, Eurasian 'ostralegus' white; American underwings
have dark flight feathers, Eurasian pale; otherwise, according to
'Shorebirds', they look pretty much alike.

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)