The bird I saw on Tuesday landed maybe 40 feet from me the sun was behind me.
This bird was distinctly bright. A bright red rufous cap not brownish red like
a pec. It had a distinct and more prominent white supercilium than a pec.
There was a buffy wash on the breast , it was not a dark streaked breastplate
like a pec has with a distinct cut off . The bill was not as long as that of a
pec. There were pecs nearby to compare. That is why I indentified it as a
sharp- tailed sp.
Sally Hill
On Sep 20, 2018, at 5:44 PM, Alan Contreras <acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
One of the pecs out Royal has a brighter eyeline than usual and rather light
streaking. We chased it around for half an hour on Tuesday. At one point it
walked across a sort of reddish ground cover that made it look pinky-peach
underneath. That’s my story….
The general rule with Sharp-tails is that if you spend much time wondering
whether it is one, it isn’t one. When you find a real Sharp-tail your
reaction is likely to be "Oh wow, a Sharp-tail," not “I wonder if that could
be a Sharp-tail.” I pontificated this birding norm to Caleb and Nolan as we
walked out Royal on Tuesday. I had to chew on it for a bit as walked back.
It’s a pretty good year for pectorals and a couple of Sharp-tails have
reached se Alaska, so maybe we’ll see a few yet.
As far as I can tell, the tern island at the end of Royal may be reachable by
Sunday. If so, the northern connector to Gibson Island should be open
(usually excellent birding along it) and the pipit zone north of Royal where
the grass stops (east of the short Osprey tower) might be dry enough to walk.
It wasn’t on Tuesday.
Alan Contreras
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
Eugene, Oregon
www.alanlcontreras.com
On Sep 20, 2018, at 5:26 PM, Dennis Arendt <dennisarendt@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I was mistaken when I identified the sandpiper at Fern Ridge Wednesday
afternoon. I said it was a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. My photos indicate that
it was indeed a Pectoral Sandpiper. Thank you Roger and David for pointing
this out to me.
Dennis
