Plenty of shorebirds at this drawdown later this PM. Highlight was 3 Hudsonian Godwits. Especially interesting considering the conversation on this listserve the other day about how similar a Marbled Godwit can be in some plumages. Two of these birds were traditional breeding plumaged birds. Not hard to identify at all.
The 3rd was a brownish gray in color under the cloudy rain threatening skies. Seemed to be a bit bigger than the other two. By the way, we were probably only 150 yards away with 50 power spotting scopes. The bill was identically colored but did seem to be a bit longer. But upon close examination, while it was preening, it was obvious that the bird had a black banded tail with a white base. Thus it definitely was a Hudsonian Godwit. We presume that one of the sexes of Hudsonian Godwit is a bit larger with a longer bill and we would bet that the bird not in breeding plumage was a different sex than the other two. By the was that bird did tend to roam away from the two while feeding although when they decided to preen they were lined up side by side at the very edge of the water. Kind of neat was when they lined up to preen, with the other species very close by, so minor movements of the scope allowed good size comparison with a Long-billed Dowitcher, several Willits, a Greater Yellowlegs, and several Lesser Yellowlegs. We never realized that a Long-billed Dowitcher bill is almost the same length as a Hudsonian Godwit. Other shorebirds present included Least, Pectoral, Stilt and Spotted sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitcher, Wilson's and Red-necked phalaropes, and Killdeer for a total of 13 species. It's getting better each day of migration. And a Western Kingbird was flycatching off the mud in the cold weather. Dennis and Barbara Martin Shorewood, MN dbmar...@skypoint.com ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
