Tweets,



The golden-plover Guy McWethy discovered Wednesday, October 8, which was
photographed Thursday morning by Curtis Pearson, reappeared today about
noon, flying in from the north. Brien Meilleur and I were about to give up
when Brien spotted it coming in for a landing. I photographed it, sort of,
Michael Hobbs saw it a bit later, and Ollie Oliver got great closeup photos
later yet today which show the primary extension and other marks very well.



The bird is clearly an AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER, a juvenile. Four primary tips
can be clearly seen beyond the tip of the longest tertial, and they are
quite evenly spaced, while three irregularly spaced primary tips is
characteristic of Pacifics. The overall coloration is pale buffy on brown,
not at all "golden yellow" as are many if not most juvenile Pacifics. The
supercilium is white and flares noticeably behind the eye, highlighting the
dark ear patch. The bill is rather fine and tapered and the bird seem to
stand less tall than we recall of Pacifics we've seen in Hawaii and
elsewhere. The bird has been silent, apparently.



There are about a dozen golden-plover records for King County and most could
not be positively identified to species. several reports predated the split
and others identified as one or the other did not have definitive details.
Dennis Paulson photographed one before the split but it was not positioned
to show definitive field marks. Three reports are for May, the rest are fall
birds recorded August to November. One May bird, at least, was positively
identified as a Pacific in alternate plumage, so we know that both species
have occurred, but which is more likely here, where both are very rare, is
impossible to say.



The field with the golden-plover has hosted several hundred Cackling Geese,
a flock of 40-odd Greater White-fronted Geese, two Pectoral Sandpipers, two
Dunlin, quite a few Wilson's Snipes, a Merlin, goodly numbers of Savannah
Sparrows, and passing flocks of American Pipits. The Toysmith wetland off
277th about a mile north today had two Pectorals, a Dunlin, five Long-billed
Dowitchers, and Killdeers as well.



A very nice find for a county that is seriously shorebird-challenged.



Gene Hunn

18476 47th Pl NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155

enhunn323 at comcast.net