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Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 20:38:48 -0700
To: [[email protected]]
From: Bill Bousman <[[email protected]]>
Subject: Re: [SBB] Alviso sandpiper query [Tom Grey]
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At 06:52 PM 8/21/03 -0700, Tom Grey wrote:
>Couldn't get any pictures of the STSA. But meantime I did take a couple of
>shots of whatever I could get to stand still enough for my awkward mode of
>digiscoping. Here are two of a bird I assumed to be a Least Sandpiper when
>I was photographing it. But then when I got home and looked at the
>pictures, the legs were black. Now that is probably either mud or an
>artifact of the lighting. The extent of brown on the chest still says Least
>to me. But looking at the pix I talked myself into thinking the bill shape
>and the rest of the plumage wouldn't be inconsistent with Semipalmated, so
>I wondered if I might have stumbled photograpically across one.  I still
>figure an adult Least mostly molted to basic, but with some remnants of
>alternate. But instruction welcome.

I'll bite.  My vote is that what you "figure" above is quite correct, an 
adult Least with a few alternate feathers remaining.  The amount of heavy 
brown streaking on the chest, throat, and face are pretty typical of this 
species as well as the faint supercilium.  I don't think an adult 
Semipalmated (or any other stint) would show such heavy 
streaking.  Juvenile stints of all species should show less streaking, so 
this eliminates them.  As for the bill, well it looks a lot like a Least to 
me.  Leg color is often tricky on these birds.  If it is obviously yellow, 
then you have a Least.  If it doesn't look yellow, you need to look 
again.  What you don't get with this photo is any sense of size, which, in 
the field, can sometimes help (and sometimes confuse).

I don't think you should talk to yourself.

Bill 

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