[wisb] Re: Dowitcher ID - what do you think?

  • From: Ryan Brady <ryanbrady10@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 4 May 2012 10:09:42 -0600

While finality is always nice, I'm somewhat happy that in the three forums I've 
posted this to (here, wisbirdn facebook group, and facebook ID group) 
disagreement/confusion reigns as well. So Nick, Sam, and I weren't missing the 
boat. In addition to what you've read here on wisbirdn, a couple folks I also 
highly respect have weighed in on Facebook with differing opinion that all 3 
birds are Long-billeds. Most notably comes the following from Alvaro Jaramillo, 
who some of you know:

"Hi folks. All three look like Long-billed Dowitchers to me. They are not fully 
molted in on the underparts, making them tougher. Flank pattern of rusty, black 
bar and white tip with no rufous between the black or white is very good. Black 
centered scapulars with white fringes that constrict at rachis, so that with a 
little wear they will look like two separate white spots on each feather is 
good. Extent of rusty below all good, lack of single spots anywhere on reddish 
belly is against Short-billed. The shorter billed one is a male. The hendersoni 
are also more orange below, less brick, and have more gold tones on the 
upperparts in spring."

Thanks for the discussion so far, looking forward to more informed input.


Ryan Brady
Washburn, Bayfield County, WI
http://www.pbase.com/rbrady



> From: stevethiessen@xxxxxxxxxxx
> To: ryanbrady10@xxxxxxxxxxx; wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [wisb] Re: Dowitcher ID - what do you think?
> Date: Fri, 4 May 2012 01:49:03 -0500
>
>
>
> On pic 58, A bird's throat doesn't appear clear. I'd say A and C LB's and B
> not sure. It has more rust edged scapulars with out white, but still seems
> to have a lot of white, brighter on some pics. Regular texts don't solve
> some problems. Online photos don't always help either and are miss labeled.
> I was looking yesterday, because we had the same problem Wednesday. There
> was a photo where the person was making a point that the SB's bill is quite
> long and had a LB in the photo. Steve Thiessen Stoughton Dane co.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ryan Brady" <ryanbrady10@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 8:45 PM
> Subject: [wisb] Dowitcher ID - what do you think?
>
>
>>
>> Short version...what species are represented by these dowitchers seen in
>> Ashland yesterday?
>>
>> http://www.pbase.com/rbrady/dowitcherid
>> http://www.pbase.com/nanich/dowitchers
>>
>>
>> Longer version... Sam Krerowicz found three dowitchers just west of
>> Ashland yesterday and then Nick Anich and I headed out to take a look
>> after work. We didn't have much time and expected Short-billeds, even
>> though it's slightly earlier (by about a week) than we usually see them.
>> We walked up and tried turning them into Long-billeds. We thought we might
>> have 1 LB and 2 SBs at one point and then convinced ourselves they were
>> all just the expected SBs as LBs are quite rare here. We soon left to
>> return to our fatherly duties but later last night that ID didn't sit well
>> with us. After some chatting Nick and I started to convince ourselves that
>> Bird C had to be a LB. Then we were leaning toward all 3 being LBs. Then
>> we were just downright confused. And here we are...confused. This is a
>> tough ID and one Nick and I frankly are not comfortable with. We butchered
>> the whole process as we could've had killer photos of the birds in perfect
>> light but our hurriedness resulted in mostly poo
>> r digiscopes and heavily cropped dSLR shots, which are in the two
>> galleries above.
>>
>> What do you think? I've labeled the individuals in my gallery for ease of
>> referencing Birds A, B, and C during discussion.
>>
>>
>>
>> Ryan Brady
>> Washburn, Bayfield County, WI
>> http://www.pbase.com/rbrady ####################
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