[Tweeters] Semipalmated Sandpipers

[Steve Platz]

Today at Useless Bay at a low tide I noticed six sandpiper-like birds on the flats that, when I looked later at the bad shots I got,  had shorter thicker bills and were a little taller than shots I've seen of Western Sandpipers. The eyes were large and dark, dark long legs. I regret not getting any shots in flight. From what I understand, Semipalmated Sandpipers would be uncommon here, but I'm wondering what others think, maybe just Westerns, like I thought. Here's the shot I added to the checklist https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/413340801. I have a few others if someone would be interested to further identify, maybe I'm making something out of nothing. Warmly, Steve Platz

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On Saturday, February 5th, 2022 at 12:05 PM, <tweeters-request at mailman11.u.washington.edu> wrote:


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> Today's Topics:

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> 1.  Light morph Red-tailed Hawk on San Juan Island (Mike Wagenbach)

> 2.  leucistic Red-tailed Hawk in Skagit (Gary Bletsch)

> 3.  Edmonds 2022 Checklist Available (Carol Riddell)

> 4.  Loons at Rosario Head (Steven Dammer)

> 5.  Loons at Rosario Head (Steven Dammer)

> 6.  Re: Loons at Rosario Head (Gary Bletsch)

>

>

> Message: 1

>

> Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2022 17:06:46 -0800

>

> From: Mike Wagenbach wagen at uw.edu

>

> To: Tweeters Tweeters tweeters at u.washington.edu

>

> Subject: [Tweeters] Light morph Red-tailed Hawk on San Juan Island

>

> Message-ID:

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> CAO8p4TGKhwA3g_X4GdgFV4VHX-zFYbjrujXYNqUG4cVkDD_WDg at mail.gmail.com

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> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

>

> Late report: Sunday, January 30 we had a light-morph Red-tailed Hawk

>

> ridge-soaring close over Cattle Point Road in the eastern part of American

>

> Camp on San Juan Island. Unfortunately it was harassed by a Raven and

>

> moved away before we could pull out a camera. The photo below looks very

>

> similar in any details I can remember.

>

> https://live.staticflickr.com/5520/11258911063_f3f121c2f6_b.jpg

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> Message: 2

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> Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2022 01:56:31 +0000

>

> From: Gary Bletsch garybletsch at protonmail.com

>

> To: "tweeters at u.washington.edu" tweeters at u.washington.edu

>

> Subject: [Tweeters] leucistic Red-tailed Hawk in Skagit

>

> Message-ID:

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> tUsft5i1yVD0O7kM2B2RgRSR9_ruFAN2fgwF7DP11-4-sm5JDSW4d-yN3X6jTs067qkdNYO9YyCju7RuEex-2bBY2r4znckapV-HkvN8bl8=@protonmail.com

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> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

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> Dear Tweeters,

>

> Today, the fourth of February, there was a strikingly pale Red-tailed Hawk on Minkler Road in Skagit County. This is about five minutes east of Sedro-Woolley. The roadway was damaged during the floods in November, so it is closed a few hundred meters west of Hoehn Road. The closure makes the road much quieter than it normally would be on this 50-mph thoroughfare.

>

> The bird was perched on a telephone wire along Minkler Road, just west of Hoehn Road. This is within the eBird hotspot known as Minkler Flats. I was able to get a few photos. The bird was very pale, with a white tail, much white on the head, and a mostly pure-white underside. The belly band was reduced to just a few streaks. The relatively small size made me suspect that this was a male. I will put the photos on my eBird checklist soon.

>

> Yours truly,

>

> Gary Bletsch

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> Message: 3

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> Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2022 09:47:51 -0800

>

> From: Carol Riddell cariddellwa at gmail.com

>

> To: Tweeters Tweeters at u.washington.edu

>

> Subject: [Tweeters] Edmonds 2022 Checklist Available

>

> Message-ID: 9CAF0469-57A9-465C-BEDD-FE5891B7B1F4 at gmail.com

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> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

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> Hi Tweets,

>

> Thanks to Laurie Knittle for making the revisions to our city checklist with Microsoft Publisher, a program I don?t have. The new checklist reflects 279 species. Three new species in 2021 were Red-naped Sapsucker, White-rumped Sandpiper, and Tropical Kingbird. We made several abundance code revisions. If you would like a pdf copy of the checklist, which is in the same format as the county checklists from Washington Birder, please request it at checklistedmonds at gmail dot com.

>

> I have been reviewing January sightings in Edmonds and we hope to post a January Roundup tomorrow or Monday.

>

> Good birding,

>

> Carol Riddell

>

> Edmonds, WA

>

> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> Message: 4

>

> Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2022 11:22:57 -0800

>

> From: Steven Dammer dammerecologist1990 at gmail.com

>

> To: Tweeters tweeters at u.washington.edu, tweeters at uw.edu

>

> Subject: [Tweeters] Loons at Rosario Head

>

> Message-ID:

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> CAGp0QUCKnR3j1kA=UdZKk5y1RFPEEn8=aFWPSew3tx4efikpTQ at mail.gmail.com

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> Hey Tweets,

>

> Am currently scoping at Rosario Head and there are a good amount of Pacific

>

> Loons just to the right of the island. I did encounter one that stood out.

>

> I'm not foolish enough to fully believe that what I saw was an Arctic Loon

>

> among the crowd, but when seen side by side with so many other PALO I

>

> couldn't help but notice how much white was visible along the flanks

>

> showing above the water line. I observed it til it dove and have not been

>

> able to relocate yet.

>

> Are any of y'all adept at Loon ID and can possibly help me out here?

>

> Best,

>

> Steven Dammer

>

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> Message: 5

>

> Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2022 11:22:57 -0800

>

> From: Steven Dammer dammerecologist1990 at gmail.com

>

> To: Tweeters tweeters at u.washington.edu, tweeters at uw.edu

>

> Subject: [Tweeters] Loons at Rosario Head

>

> Message-ID:

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> CAGp0QUCKnR3j1kA=UdZKk5y1RFPEEn8=aFWPSew3tx4efikpTQ at mail.gmail.com

>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

>

> Hey Tweets,

>

> Am currently scoping at Rosario Head and there are a good amount of Pacific

>

> Loons just to the right of the island. I did encounter one that stood out.

>

> I'm not foolish enough to fully believe that what I saw was an Arctic Loon

>

> among the crowd, but when seen side by side with so many other PALO I

>

> couldn't help but notice how much white was visible along the flanks

>

> showing above the water line. I observed it til it dove and have not been

>

> able to relocate yet.

>

> Are any of y'all adept at Loon ID and can possibly help me out here?

>

> Best,

>

> Steven Dammer

>

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> Message: 6

>

> Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2022 20:00:39 +0000 (UTC)

>

> From: Gary Bletsch garybletsch at yahoo.com

>

> To: Steven Dammer dammerecologist1990 at gmail.com, "tweeters at uw.ed"

>

>     <tweeters at uw.ed>, 	"tweeters at u.washington.edu"

>

>     <tweeters at u.washington.edu>

>

>

> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Loons at Rosario Head

>

> Message-ID: 492544995.131773.1644091239553 at mail.yahoo.com

>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

>

> Dear Steven and Tweeters,

>

> I don't want to step on toes here, but I hope that you are certain about the ID of the Pacific Loons. I have been out there at Rosario quite a few times when there were the usual large numbers of Red-throated Loons. Then I come home, look at eBird, and see that there were other birders there at the same time that I was there--but those birders had called the loons Pacific Loons, and did not even have the Red-throated Loon on their eBird checklist. This has happened as recently as a few weeks ago.

>

> About 25 years ago, a friend of mine bought himself a brand-new video recorder, a big and clunky one that was state-of-the-art at the time. He and I had discussed a set of CBC data that had included large numbers of Pacific Loons at Rosario Head, and hardly any Red-throated Loons. Even back then, we were both of the opinion that the large winter flocks of loons at Rosario Head were almost always Red-throated Loons, not Pacifics. We went out to Rosario Head with the new-fangled video camera and "filmed" the large flock of loons. Then we went back to his house and viewed the video on his television set. Just as we had concluded while viewing the flock through our scopes, all of the loons that we could see on the tape were Red-throated Loons.?

>

> On the infrequent occasions that I see large flocks of Pacific Loons in Skagit County, they are most often at Washington Park, March Point, or Samish Island.

>

> Checking my own personal records for the two species, I find that I have seen "large" flocks (> 5) of Pacific Loons only 8 times in Skagit County over the past 30+ years. Only one of those occurrences was at Rosario Head, 8 birds on 11-03-2018. By contrast, I have seen flocks of over 5 Red-throated Loons at least 85 times in Skagit. The great majority of those were at Rosario Head.

>

> One thing that I look for on Pacific Loons is the shape of the head. I like to call them "Puffy-Heads." They often seem to have extra-thick feathers on the crown, making their head seem plush or puffy. There is often also a subtly distinct color to the head, a slaty grey that looks different to me than the color on the head of the RTLO. This can be seen sometimes even when the birds are so distant that it becomes difficult to judge the shape of the bill.

>

> I have not birded all that much at Semiahmoo, but I have seen large flocks of Pacific Loons twice in fourteen visits there, which makes me think that Semiahmoo is a far better place to observe large numbers of Pacific Loons than anywhere in Skagit.

>

> All of this of course is a necessary prelude to any discussion of the ID of an Arctic Loon in Washington.

>

> Yours truly

>

> Gary Bletsch

>

> On Saturday, February 5, 2022, 11:24:01 AM PST, Steven Dammer dammerecologist1990 at gmail.com wrote:

>

> Hey Tweets,?

>

> Am currently scoping at Rosario Head and there are a good amount of Pacific Loons just to the right of the island. I did encounter one that stood out.?

>

> I'm not foolish enough to fully believe that what I saw was an Arctic Loon among the crowd, but when seen side by side with so many other PALO I couldn't help but notice how much white was visible along the flanks showing above the water line. I observed it til it dove and have not been able to relocate yet.?

>

> Are any of y'all adept at Loon ID and can possibly help me out here??

>

> Best,

>

> Steven Dammer?_______________________________________________

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> End of Tweeters Digest, Vol 210, Issue 5