Tweets,
well, after stirring up everyone with the report of a
possible Long-toed Stint at Spencer Island, "I can
neither confirm nor deny its existance".

I looked again for the bird on sunday, and did not see
anything that looked right.

The looks I got relative to the Least and Western
Sandpipers standing right next to it, have got me
about 90% convinced of the ID. The toes and legs were
yellow to yellow-green, and longer than those of the
Leasts. And the bird was larger than the Leasts, and
about the same size as the Westerns.

But I only had my Sibley West guide with me, and
Sibley does not have the LT Stint in his book!!! So I
did not know what other field marks to look for.
After consulting the new Paulson guide, and Hayman's
Shorebirds books, I NOW know the plumage patterns to
look for. But I can not quite convince myself that it
was a LT Stint on saturday.

But from now on I WILL be carrying a Paulson shorebird
guide with me during Fall migration!!

Good Shore-birding! See you out in the field!

Guy

Guy McWethy
Renton, WA
mailto: lguy_mcw at yahoo.com

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