Greetings All

I finally got around to scrutinizing my video of the YT Warbler. I wholly
agree with Patrick that the bird is of the race albilora. Beyond the points
that Patrick made, I could see a bit of white on the chin, which fits
albilora better than dominica.

As to age/gender. From what I can extract from the literature, the black on
this bird's cap is too restricted to be an adult male. The back is too gray
and the flanks too white to be an imm female, thus leaving us with imm male
or adult female. Unfortunately, these are apparently not separable in the
field. Given that imms are more likely to wander, I'd bet on an imm male,
but there is no way to know.

On another note, during our Ivory Gull chase last Thursday, we saw a Rock
Sandpiper at Point Roberts, near the lighthouse. Gene Hunn suggested the
possibility of this bird being a nominate (aka Pribilof) Rock Sand. Stupidly,
I did not give it sufficient consideration. Looking at the video I shot, I
wonder if it might have been. The bird is fairly pale, but more
interestingly, the streaking is quite limited. Sadly, we didn't look at other
potentially useful marks, and there were no other Rock Sands around for
comparison. I could see some of the tail, which DID NOT look right for a Prib
Rock Sand. Nonetheless, if you are up chasing Ivory Gulls in Vancouver, and
can pop down to Pt Roberts, it might be worth looking at this bird. Please
email me if you see it. For notes on the ID of Rock Sand races, see Tom
Aversa's article in North American Birds, 55:242.

Cheers
Steven Mlodinow
SGMlod at aol.com
Everett WA
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