Newspapers tend to over simplify the statements made by
the people they quote as experts. The measurements most
probably reflects the values given in Hayman, Marchant and
Prater:

Lesser Sandplover Length 190-210mm (7.75")
[7.5 - 8.3" if you do the conversion]
Greater Sandplover Length 220-250mm (9.25")
[8.7 - 9.8" if you do the conversion]

Just for scale Sempalmated Plover is listed as 7" and
Sanderlings are listed as 8". That would be dead birds
laid out on their backs and measured bill tip to tail.
Since the bill is part of length measurement, bigger bodied
birds with small bills can come off smaller than smaller
bodied birds with big bills.

There is overlap in all measurements that could be taken on
live birds except bill length.

Rich Stallcup undoubtedly knows all this, but it was probably
more then the average reporter dealing in "human interest" was
willing to include.


Rob Saecker wrote:
>
> At 10:46 PM -0000 3/3/01, SGMlod at aol.com wrote:
> >I did not have any size comparisons
> >with comparable birds (the nearest bird in size being BB Plover), but
> >apparently others have seen the sand-plover with shorebirds of similar size,
> >and some of those observers feel that the sand-plover looked small for a
> >Greater. That is the only source of doubt that I've heard.
>
> I recently saw an article about the Sand Plover from a SF Bay Area
> newspaper. One of those expressing reservations about the identification of
> this bird is Rich Stallcup, and he was quoted as saying that a Greater Sand
> Plover should be nine inches, and this one is only seven. The specificity
> of that comment made me wonder if someone had caught and measured the bird,
> but I've heard enough stories about Stallcup's abilities in the field that
> I'm not about to argue with him. In any case, the article went on to say
> that someone had collected a feather from the plover, and it was being sent
> off for lab analysis which should settle the question.
>
> Though I don't have that article in front of me, if anyone is interested I
> can get the reference.
>
> Rob Saecker
> Olympia, WA
> rsaecker at thurston.com

--
Mike Patterson Alas, to wear the mantle of Galileo,
Astoria, OR it is not enough to be persecuted
celata at pacifier.com by an unkind establishment,
you must also be right.
---Robert Park
http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html