[texbirds] Re: better photos of King Ranch dilute plumage Harris's Hawk
- From: Jim Sinclair <jim.sinclair@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 18:48:22 -0600
Some folks have privately questioned my Semi-palmated Sandpiper sighting.
That's fine, I don't blame them, and I certainly am not insisting that my
ID was correct. But I thought I would at least share my thought processes,
so that others may learn (including the horrible mistake I made of not
taking a picture).
The bird was feeding at the edge of the water. When I first looked at it,
it did not register what it was. I even told the other folks that I was
puzzled. But - I DID know several things that it was not.
I see hundreds of Western and Least Sandpipers, and immediately dismissed
those possibilities. I also regularly see solitary and spotted, and
dismissed those. Baird's and White-rumped were also quickly dismissed.
We were discussing what it might be, and I was mentally going through the
list of smaller sandpipers, and regularly saying why I didn't think it
wasn't such and such. I didn't even think of Semi-palmated until another
birder, looking through the field guide, mentioned it. As soon as he did,
it clicked.
About the lack of a photo. I'm embarrassed that I didn't even think of
it. The rarity didn't occur to me until later.
On Sat, Dec 13, 2014 at 4:22 PM, Jim Sinclair <jim.sinclair@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
>
> Spent the morning on the Santa Gertrudis division and the afternoon on the
> Laureles division.
>
> Got some better photos of the dilute plumage Harris's Hawk I reported a
> couple of weeks back.
>
> <
> https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B14si0zJLG-QVWx1UndQb1ZrUzA&usp=sharing
> >
>
> Among the 72 total species were one Burrowing Owl, two Sprague's Pipits,
> eight species of raptor, and - strangest of all - a Semi-palmated
> Sandpiper. I had one in November over ten years ago, but never in December.
>
> --
> Jim Sinclair (TX-ESA)
> TOS Life Member
> Kingsville, TX
>
> "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of
> thinking we were at when we created them." - Albert Einstein
>
--
Jim Sinclair (TX-ESA)
TOS Life Member
Kingsville, TX
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of
thinking we were at when we created them." - Albert Einstein
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