Joe and others interested in the possible Ruff, read on. Joe's indirect
suggestion that the mystery bird was not a Ruff is worthy of consideration,
of course. Keep in mind that the birds at Timnath Res are almost always at a
great distance and sometimes in bad light. All 4 observers (that I know of)
who saw possible Ruff had brief, distant views. I won't repeat my
description here, but I will offer two comments: 1) One aspect that bothers
me for Ruff is that the upperparts were brownish, and the underparts were
buffy-brown on the chest, whitish on the belly (according to Sibley,
juvenile Ruff is bright buff all over, which is why I suggested possibly an
adult female in basic plumage, or perhaps a juvenile molting into basic);
2)I took into consideration Pectoral Sandpiper at the time in the field, but
ruled it out due to the buff-brown color of the chest and the lack of clear
markings on the chest that contrast sharply with unstreaked white belly.
However, Joe's comment that the Pectoral Sandpiper he saw was a male got me
thinking about size issues. The mystery bird was clearly larger than
Sanderling, and possibly slightly larger than Killdeer (but I personally am
not sure about this). What would be the size difference between female Ruff
(a.k.a. Reeve) and a male Pectoral Sandpiper. Sibley indicates that size of
Ruff is variable, but presents an average length of 11 inches. Could Reeve
be as small as 9"? How big does male Pectoral get? Reason I ask is that a
species I considered prior to arriving at a likely ID of Ruff is
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (which like Ruff is an Asian vagrant). Sharp-tailed
Sandpiper is the Asian sister species to our Pectoral Sandpiper. I ruled it
out because I looked at the drawing of juvenal plumage, which shows a bright
rufous on the upperparts, not dull brown; and because the Sibley length
measurement is the same as Pectoral, 8.5 inches, same as Sanderling. But
what about male Sharp-tailed? Can this reach 9.5 or 10"? Looking back at
Sibley, he depicts a non-breeding adult as dull brown above, with a buff
wash on the breast. Reanalyzing my own description, I think the description
better describes a male basic plumage Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. Unfortunately,
neither myself or the observers with me that day are familiar with either of
these Asian vagrants.
Even more interesting, a Ruff was seen in the last few days I believe in
Washington state, and storms in Alaska recently blew over lots of vagrants
from Asia. Now would be a good time for Asian vagrants to show up.
I returned to Timnath Reservoir earlier this evening hoping to find the
mystery bird and/or Joe's Pectoral Sandpiper. As usual, the shorebird mix
was in flux. The water was significantly lower than yesterday, and more
shorebirds were on the west side than before, but also lots on the east side
too. I found the following:
American Avocet - 9 (northeast)
Dowitcher spp -3 (northeast)
Semipalmated Plover - 1 (north shore on west side)
Killdeer - 150+ (52 in northwest lobe alone)
Least Sandpiper - 5 (west)
Baird's - 2 (west)
Sanderling - 1 (west)
I will probably be out there in the morning when the light is good for
viewing the northeast lobe from the east side. If others go out there too,
let's be in communication, so that we can share sightings, etc. My cell
phone number is 970-449-3645. You can text me too.
Nick Komar
Fort Collins CO
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Mammoser
Sent: Friday, October 07, 2011 1:15 PM
I went to Timnath Reservoir this morning early to see what may be
there in the way of shorebirds.In total I scanned the north-east
corner, the north shore, the north-west corner, the west shore, and
the south-east corner.
I spotted the following:
Killdeer - dozens
Least Sandpiper - 3
Bairds Sandpiper - at least 1-2
Sanderling- 3
In the south-east corner I also located a male PECTORAL SANDPIPER
(perhaps the mystery shorebird that Nick Komar and Cole Wild saw). It
approached the size of the Killdeer, but the white sides to the rump
(not u-shaped white rump of a Ruff) and the demarcated breast line and
the whitish supercilium are diagnostic field marks.
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