July 14, 2004
Dowitcher difficulties
Inspired by Jon King's reports of Short-billed Dowitchers amongst the hundreds of Long-billeds at the weekend, I headed out to the City of Davis Wetlands with Caz, Z, and their daughter Hazel. Hazel had resourcefully made herself a pair of bins using two toilet rolls taped together - nothing like starting them young!
There was a much greater species diversity on this week's visit:
This Greater Yellowlegs was admiring its reflection...
... and this Western Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper and Semipalmated Plover (the first I've heard of this fall) posed nicely together.
I failed to convince myself that we'd seen any Short-billed Dowitchers. The closest I could get was these birds, which look pale underneath and have a reasonable amount of breast spotting. However, the paleness of the underparts could be due to moult and I'm not convinced the wings project beyond the tail tips. Having not seen the Pacific race of Short-billed Dowitcher I'd appreciate feedback from anyone who knows more about these things.
On the way out of the wetlands we spotted a couple of hundred Wilson's Phalaropes - a scene somewhat reminiscent of my recent visit to Mono Lake.
This is likely to be my last blog posting for a few weeks. Next week sees me jetting off to British Columbia, the Rockies and Toronto before attending conferences in Ann Arbor and Portland. Most of this time will be devoted to sightseeing, visiting friends, and work, but I dare say I'll have a few birding tales on my return!
I also had a weekend with dowitchers and had a mix of long and short-billeds - fortunately, my short-billeds were very vocal. I would expect June/July to be peak months of SB in Cal and LB coming through in larger numbers later in the month.
Posted by: andyh at July 14, 2004 4:09 PM