Subject: [Tweeters] apparent COMMON RINGED PLOVER @ Stanwood
Date: Sep 25 19:36:12 2006
From: Ruth and/or Patrick Sullivan - godwit513 at msn.com


Hello Jessie and Cameron,

Congratulations on the extreme RARE find of the "Common Ring Plover".What I found so professional was the description of this little Plover and you heard it calling loudly.It is the best bird! We would be going the next morning trying to find this jewel of a bird,but we was leading a fieldtrip for TAS to the oceans.We was hoping that the bird would have been found. The first think we did coming home to look on the computer if any birder wrote up something,either there looked and did not find the bird or a message that the bird was found.I know that there was birders going there on Sunday before dawn but there don't like to be knowing chasing rare Cameron's birds and than feeling embarrassed when there didn't find it either.We did had no reason to going on Monday,as we know birders should have seen taken photos or reported the sighting.It is really to bad that this birders not find the effort to let other birders known.Since two top birders saw this bird and having also taken great photos the bird going to be confirmed and because no one found it back makes it even more rare. Thank you both.


Cheers Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
----- Original Message -----
From: Jessie Barry
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Cc: Jessie Barry
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 10:53 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] apparent COMMON RINGED PLOVER at Stanwood


This evening Cameron Cox and I were birding the Stanwood area. Around 6:20 we heard a unfamiliar shorebird call circling overhead. We were able to spot the bird, and we were surprised to see that it was a small plover. We watched it for a couple minutes, as it called continuously (40-50 times), until it landed in a field on Bow Rd. The call was soft, descending, two-syllable 'pureee.' Unlike the call of Semipalmated Plover, it was not harsh and did not rise emphatically at the end. It was strikingly different, unlike a call either of us had heard before. We have confirmed from two different recordings, that the call matched Common Ringed Plover.

We were able to locate the bird on the ground, an obtain reasonable views in good light. The plover was a juvenile. Important distinguishing field marks we noted, included the brown on the face extending forward, meeting the bill squarely, with no white on the gape (gape was surrounded by dark brown). This was the same on both sides of the face. Also, the bird lacked a pale orbital ring, so the entire area surrounding the eye was uniformly dark. The supercillium was faint, and broken above the eye, appearing more as a white spot behind the eye than a true supercillium. The breast band was blackish, broad along the sides and narrowing at the center, but did not break. The legs were pale orange. We could not see whether or the bird was palmated.

The field where we saw the plover is on the south side of Bow Rd, south of Stanwood. The bird was in the dirt field near the end of the road, just east of the last small dirt road that goes south. This location is near the Nature Conservancy's Port Susan Bay Preserve. Please respect the No Trespassing signs in the area. We viewed the bird at high tide. There were several Killdeer and other shorebirds roosting in the field as well. The bird was still in the field when we left after 7:15 today. It was the only small plover present at the time. High tide is early tomorrow morning, which is likely the best opportunity for finding the bird again.

While we are aware that Common Ringed Plover is virtually unheard of in the lower 48, we feel confident in this identification because the call and all visual field marks matched this species.

Good photos would be very helpful, as were only have mediocre digiscoped images.

Cheers,
Jessie Barry
Seattle, WA




------------------------------------------------------------------------------


_______________________________________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters