On Monday the 28th several of us were birding at the South Jetty Columbia
River, Parking Lot C, where we flushed 5 meadowlarks. One of the meadowlarks
showed a lot of white in the tail in flight. I was able to photograph 2 of
them on the ground. One showed a white malar stripe, rather than the yellow
malar expected on a Western Meadowlark. I was not able to photograph the tail.
Today I went back, found 3 meadowlarks. One of them showed a lot of white in
the tail when it flew. I was able to photograph that bird, I think, which also
shows the white (or whitish) malar stripe. I threw several of the photos up on
the Web:
http://oschmidt.net/OwenLSchmidtLLC/MEAD.html
<http://oschmidt.net/OwenLSchmidtLLC/MEAD.html>
More study is needed. This is not a rare bird alert, but a typical Western
Meadowlark has a yellow malar right up to the mandible, only 3 white outer tail
feathers, and whitish (not buffy) flanks.
oschmidt@xxxxxxx
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
