Dave,
My apologies. For some reason I had it stuck in my head that the first photo
showing the bird with white underwings was yours, and the rest were Owen's.
thanks for setting me straight.
Darrel
From: "DJ Lauten and KACastelein" <deweysage@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2016 10:28:11 AM
Subject: [obol] Re: Eurasian Whimbrel wannabe
Just to be clear, I did not take the photos, Owen Schmidt did, and the white is
not an artifact of the photo, it was real in the field. I was sent a series of
photos of "Siberian" Whimbrels taken by Roy Lowe in South Korea last year. The
birds are identical to the bird at New River.
cheers
Dave Lauten
On 7/30/2016 8:24 AM, 5hats@xxxxxxxx wrote:
It needs to be noted that a pronounced white rump is not necessarily evident on
what is (yet) the Siberian form of Whimbrel. Sibley illustrates that form with
a white rump, but Hayman, Marchant, and Prater in "Shorebirds" do not, Their
illustration shows a bird with a whitish rump, barred with brown. The comment
corresponding to the illustration is, "Often little contrast between back and
rump". Some years ago I saw a bird of this form (species?) at Yaquina Bay. The
markings on its rump more closely matched those in "Shorebirds" than the one
shown by Sibley. The white was evident, but not pronounced, as it was mixed
with grayish barring. That bird, however, was immediately distinct from
hundsonicus, even at a distance, by its overall grayish tone, and further
distinguished by distinctly grayish barred underwings. The recent Siberian
Whimbrel at New River was a bit intriguing, as the clear white rump and the
amount of white on the underwings shown in Dave's photo appeared to me to
almost suggest a bird which had some traits of the more western races. But I'm
only speculating on that point. Other than what I see in the books I have no
knowledge of these things. And I'm not sure that the white shown on the
underwing of the bird in Dave's photo was not an artifact of lighting.
Darrel
From: "Robert O'Brien" <baro@xxxxxxx>
To: "obol" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2016 10:55:13 PM
Subject: [obol] Eurasian Whimbrel wannabe
When I started birding, the American 'whimbrel' was the Hudsonian Curlew;
( Numenius hudsonicus , a full species) probably based upon it's first
discovery in the
New World in the vicinity of Hudson's Bay. Apparently forces are now working
to change back, back from curlew to whimbrel. Whatever.
A couple of weeks ago I had a brief excitement at the SJCR. I knew Jeff
Gilligan & others
had seen the Eurasian subspecies many years ago on Sunset Beach, and when a
flock of
nine curlews aka whimbrels decided on a brief stopover (from the whirlwinds) at
the 'ponds',
I was ready with my camera. Through the viewfinder, one appeared to have a
white rump!
Alas, viewing the photos later on the computer screen showed the white to be
the underside,
not the rump.
