Hi Nagi
Those would be Black-bellied Plovers. Golden plovers are never this
whitish, and just the general body jizz screams BB Plover.
Lovely Snowy Plover pictures. As a side note, the Snowies now have
been wintering at South Beach for a good five years or even more (Cathy
would know). Once plovers establish a wintering site (or even
breeding site), they will become dependent on that site year after
year. They have very high site fidelity, both in winter and summer.
So the bottom line is that this site should be a very reliable site for
Snowy Plovers into the foreseeable future, as long as they are
relatively undisturbed, the habitat remains good, and everyone basically
gives them a little space. They will be quite accommodating to all the
locals and birders - which is just awesome news for everyone.
I should mention that anyone seeing Snowies might be interested to know
that birds with a single band on the right leg that is either RED or
ORANGE means that it was banded as a chick this past summer 2018 in
Oregon. Knowing the age of the birds may be a good exercise in both
watching the progression of molt and testing your ability to age and sex
the plovers. If you want to know specifics on where individuals are
from, contact me directly and I will do my best.
Cheers
Dave Lauten
Oregon Biodiversity Information Center
Institute for Natural Resources
PSU
On 9/24/2018 10:41 AM, Nagi Aboulenein wrote:
Hi Bob,
Unfortunately, no flight shots of the Golden Plovers. An inconsiderate biker dragging a dog decided to drive too close to the birds, and they flew about half a mile further south and didn't return while we were there. After having gotten a good bunch of photos of them, I decided to shift focus (no pun intended :-) ) to the Snowy Plovers, instead of pursuing the Goldens.
Interesting points that you raise, which I'm definitely not qualified to respond to, so I'll take a backseat and watch the discussion unfold :)
Cheers,
Nagi
On Mon, Sep 24, 2018 at 9:17 AM Bob Archer <rabican1@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:rabican1@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Hi all:
I was looking at these great photos by Nagi, I was thinking the
plovers at South Beach are golden hued Black-bellied rather than
Golden-Plovers. The shorter wings, bulky look, bland face and
large bill fit. hard for me to judge size, but the Goldens are
obviously smaller than a Black-bellied. Maybe one has a very
small bill but I think it is the angle.Any flight shots?
Bob Archer
PDX
On Sun, Sep 23, 2018 at 9:10 PM Nagi Aboulenein
<nagi.aboulenein@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:nagi.aboulenein@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Taghrid and I had an excellent weekend birding the Newport
area on Saturday, and Fort Stevens area on Sunday.
Newport area:
* South Beach (south of the access trail from the restrooms):
o 2 Pacific Golden Plovers
o Two dozen or so Snowy Plovers
o 1 Semi-palmated Sandpiper
o 2 Western Sandpipers
o Two dozen or so Sanderlings
o Also had a very brief view of what appeared to be a
Lapland Longspur though not 100% certain - keep your
eyes open for one in that area
* Hatfield MSC Nature Trail (across from the shelter):
o 1 Ruff
o 1 Black-bellied Plover
o 1 Least Sandpiper
o Couple of hundred gulls: mostly California, with a
handful of Western
o 12 or so Brown Pelicans
o 1 Northern Pintail
o 2 Greater White-fronted Geese
o 1 Great Blue Heron
o 1 Belted Kingfisher
o 1 Turkey Vulture
o 4 or 5 White-crowned Sparrows
Ft. Stevens - Trestle Bay:
* 1 Hudsonian Godwit (only far views, poor photos but
definitely diagnostic)
* 1 Willet
* 6 Marbled Godwits
* 2 FOS Dunlins
* 8 Sanderlings at Ft. Stevens
* 2 Western Sandpipers
* Western and California Gulls
* 2 Northern Harriers
Del Rey Beach to Peter Iredale:
* Around 200 Sanderlings over a 6-7 mile stretch of beach -
no other shorebirds were seen
* Western Gulls
* California Gulls
* 1 Heerman’s Gull
* Dozens of Brown Pelicans, lots of diving/fishing activity
* 1 Tern sp - very brief look, not long enough to identify
Here is a link to some photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHskF9fEjP .
Good birding,
Nagi & Taghrid.
