Hi Tweeters,

I have been looking at my photos of juvenile golden-plovers since I got
back from Westport on Sept. 25 -- one American Golden-Plover (AMGP) at
Wenas Lake Sept. 2003, one possible Pacific Golden-Plover (PAGP) at John
Wayne Marina Oct 2003 and four PAGP at Damon Point on Sept. 25, 2005.

I noticed that the Wenas Lake AMGP mostly unmarked rear flanks and the
Damon Point PAGP had heavily marked rear flanks. I looked in Dennis
Paulson shorebird photographic guide and the Photographic Guide to the
Shorebirds of the World and that seems to hold true. I have spent a lot of
time searching on-line for both golden-plovers and have looked at many
photos of each in the past week. With few exceptions, I have found that
AMGO have fewer and paler markings or barring on the rear flanks than do PAGP.

I haven't found any mention of this difference as a way of aiding in
identifying juvenile golden-plovers in the field guides or shorebird
guides. I have created a folder on my website in which I offer this as a
theory, hoping to create some interest in people doing field
observations. Here is the link to the folder:

http://www.granstrand.net/gallery/album29

I realize I am using a very small number of photos in my research and
expect to find that over the wide spectrum of individual birds it might not
hold true. But I think the discussion will be interesting. It might get
people to look more closely at golden-plovers, which do present a difficult
area of identification for many birders.

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan have photos of both species on one page of their
website:

http://www.pbase.com/godwit/peeps

Their photos show birds of both species that are fairly close in the amount
of the barring but I think the AMGO barring in their photos is paler and
doesn't go down the side as far as on their photos of PAGP. Their photos
do show more barring on AMGP than any other photos I have seen. This might
just show there is some overlap in the middle range of barring and color of
the two species.

The juvenile golden-plover I photographed at John Wayne Marina in Oct. 2003
is an interesting case. I identified it as an AMGP. I wrote that in an
e-mail to Tweeters. Someone e-mailed me saying his group had seen that
bird the same day and thought it was a PAGP. I sent the photo to a member
of the bird records committee, who sent it on to the other
members. Everyone said what they thought it was -- four PAGP, three AMGP
and one BBPL.

In applying my theory to that photo, it appears to be an AMGP.

I am interested in the thoughts of others on Tweeters about this. Since we
are close to the end of the shorebird migration for this year, I have sent
this to Tweeters with less input from others than I wanted.

Denny



* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* dgranstrand at charter.net *
* Denny's bird photos can be seen online at: *
http://granstrand.net/gallery/