Subject: assorted shorebird stuff
Date: Aug 1 18:57:06 2001
From: Scott Atkinson - scottratkinson at hotmail.com


Let's enjoy the new Stilt Sand polemic!

In agreement, I had not checked juv. arrival dates in Dennis' book, I'll
leave it to the Sullivans other than that. I will note that the Sullivans'
is the first July report, all others for Skagit County being in Aug-Sept.

But with all due respect to Steve's experience, I beg to differ sharply on
Jensen being atypical as Stilt Sandpiper habitat. Most important: Jensen
and areas accessible therefrom are more complex than "a tidal flat."

There are plenty of 100% exposed, muddy, backwater ponds--saline to
brackish--across the Skagit WMAs near or at the high-tide zone. This
includes a few just east (and out of view) of Jensen's dike overlook, and
shorebirds do move around. These microhabitats illustrate the access
problem I noted the other day on Tweeters: these sites can be reached on
foot via Jensen, but not easily. Further, since the sites are not visible
from the dike viewing area, my guess is that Steve has yet to venture out
onto the flats on foot, much less follow the inlets/outflows up to their
dike origins. I would venture that if this were done more often, we would
find not only a more regular Aug-Sept occurrence of Stilt Sandpipers from
Jensen, but would on occasion even find them in small groups, as has already
happened on one or two occasions, no different from previous records of
multiples (at similar habitat) at Crockett Lake and a few other wWA
sites....

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
email: scottratkinson at hotmail.com

>From: SGMlod at aol.com
>Reply-To: SGMlod at aol.com
>To: Tweeters at u.washington.edu
>Subject: assorted shorebird stuff
>Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 23:28:19 EDT
>
>Greetings All
>
>First of all -- regarding the juv Stilt Sandpiper at Jensen Access. I must
>say that this bird is most surprising on two accounts. Firstly, it is very
>early for a juv Stilt Sandiper. Indeed, this report is 10 days earlier than
>any record given in Dennis Paulson's book (and 2+ weeks before any in my
>experience). Secondly, despite Scott Atkinson's experience, I think Jensen
>Access is highly atypical habitat for this species. I have only once seen a
>Stilt Sandpiper on a tidal flat anywhere on the west coast. I was wondering
>if Ruth managed to get any photos of this bird.
>
>Secondly -- Bar-tailed Godwit vs worn Marbled Godwit can be quite a
>challenge. One point that is often visible at a surprising distance is
>primary projection. Bar-tailed Godwits have noticeably longer primary
>projection than Marbled Godwits. I've found this mark to hold up quite
>well,
>except on one occasion where I encountered a worn Marbled Godwit that
>appeared to have relatively long primary projection.
>
>Cheers
>Steven Mlodinow


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp