hi groups ...

yesterday (May 31) a friend and I were touring around Sauvie Island
looking for birds ... went down Rentenaar Road to see if we could
find the Phalarope that Wink Gross mentioned on friday ... at what we
"assumed" was Wink's "shorebird flats" (just before
turnaround/parking at end of road) we stopped to watch ... nice spot
to sit for a while ... the "flats" had a female Mallard, a pair of
Northern Shovelers, and a pair of Blue-winged Teals ... we also saw a
Heron, Egret, Killdeer, Red-winged, and lots of brown tweety thngs
... overhead we watched Cowbirds beating up on a Red-tailed Hawk, an
Osprey flew by, plus lots of Eagles ...

our "interesting bird of the day" however was a Plover (we are
assuming) down on the flats ... it wasn't close to the road and
virtually impossible to see without binocs ... we only had 8 power
binocs as we both stupidly left our scopes at home, each thinking the
other one had packed theirs ... what we saw in the sunlight was
basically a white head and back, with a hint of grey in the back ...
the face, breast, and tummy were solid black ... from our distance
and with the bright sunlight it looked like a black and white bird ...

my question --- if someone else sees this bird can you please let me
know what variety it was ??? ... from the books I would guess
Black-bellied, mainly because it has the lightest head which from our
distance would wash out into white in the sunlight ... the other
Plovers in the books appear to have much darker heads ...

and, if it turns out not to be a Plover, by all means let me know
that too !!!!!!!!!!!! ...

thanks all,
Lyn



Lyn Topinka
http://EnglishRiverWebsite.com
http://ColumbiaRiverImages.com
http://RidgefieldBirds.com