Kathy and I just saw a WHIMBREL at New River, Coos Cty that we strongly
believe is a Eurasian/Siberian Whimbrel. We have looked at thousands
of Whimbrels in our time on the beach and none have looked like this
bird. I have also been looking for a Eurasian Whimbrel for years, and
this is the first time I feel like we have a candidate. Unfortunately
due the wind and our lack of a good camera, we do not have photos of
this individual. It would have been very difficult for us to get a
good in flight shot to show the field marks, and taking a picture of it
on the beach would not have shown the field marks.
The bird was typical size of a Whimbrel, maybe a small one. Bill was jet
black, with no pale area at the base or on the lower mandible. Typical
striped head of a Whimbrel. The color was fairly typical of a
Whimbrel, but a bit less buff than our normal Whimbrels. Legs were
blue-ish gray. Most notable was in flight the bird has a white wedge
shaped patch on the lower back extending from between the wings to the
base of the tail, very similar to a yellowlegs or dowitcher. This was
rather bright and noticable and helped give the bird a very distinct
back pattern when it was in the air. The tail was barred like a
typical Whimbrel, but was not bright whitish like a Western European
Whimbrel. The underwings were not bright white like a Western European
Whimbrel is supposed to be, but more dark and patterned like our local
Whimbrels. In flight there were very noticable white outer primary
shafts, which stood out against the generally dark primary flight
feathers. The combination of the white shafts and the white back patch
made this bird very distinct in flight. It was by itself with no other
Whimbrels to compare it to for color or size, but it looked slightly
cooler colored and not as buffy as the local Whimbrels. It was
somewhat skittish, but we watched it for some 20 minutes from a distance
of about 50-100 meters. We repeatedly watched it in flight and on the
ground, as we were aware as we were viewing it that it might not be a
regular Whimbrel. In fact it was it's strong flight pattern that made
us stop and take a hard look.
Unfortunately the bird was very far south along New River and not near
the mouth. To walk to see this bird, is like a five mile hike one way,
and there are basically no shorter ways to get out there except maybe
wading across the river at Storm Ranch (it was west of Croft Lake/New
Lake area).
If the bird sticks around, we will try to get some photos but the wind
is supposed to be strong most of the week, so I am not optimistic.
If this subspecies was split from Whimbrel, that would be our 51st
shorebird for Coos Cty.....and well, regardless, it is at least our 51st
form of a shorebird for Coos Cty!!
Once again, Kathy and her birthday comes thru!
Cheers
Dave Lauten and Kathy Castelein
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