FW: Adult, basic plumage Curlew Sandpiper, Pt. Mouillee

[Cathy Carroll]

Am forwarding the more detailed report here because it's taking awhile to
show-up on birders at umich.
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From: Cathy Carroll <songsparrow at wowway.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 13:56:30 -0400

Found by Matt Hysell.  Have just returned from watching this bird with Matt
for the better part of two hours.  As I was leaving I met Tex Wells who was
walking in to see the bird.

When I joined Matt this morning at cell 2 he commented that he'd seen a
basic plumage Stilt Sandpiper that he tried to make into a Curlew Sandpiper.
Later when I saw the bird for the first time I didn't know what it was and
asked Matt who said, "that's the bird I tried to turn into a Curlew
Sandpiper."  One of my reasons for going to Pt. Moo this morning was to see
the Wilson's Phalarope (which Matt had to find for me) and to get good looks
at Stilt Sandpipers which I've not seen many times.  I spent my first 15-20
minutes studying two Stilt Sandpipers which were still in alternate plummage
and later while scanning for the phalarope I saw 3 or 4 more Stilts also in
alternate plumage.  So when I first saw this "basic plumage Stilt," it just
didn't seem right to me.  I asked Matt if he would take another look at the
bird.  Why would this bird be in full, basic plumage when the "other" Stilts
were in the same alternate plumage?  I checked Sibley for some field marks -
the two birds are strikingly similar in basic plumage - but, the field marks
that are different are, as Matt said, unequivocal.  One is black legs for
the Curlew and yellow/green legs for the Stilt.  We both checked to make
sure that the bird did not have muddy legs that would make them appear
black.  The other field mark is a wing strip on the Curlew that the Stilt
does not have.  We had to be more patient to see this, but the bird revealed
the wing strip when preening and it flew short distances a couple of times
with the wing strip easily seen by both of us.  After watching the bird for
some time, (one time Matt had the Curlew and a Stilt in the same field of
view), other structural differences were noted - the bird wasn't as tall so
it probed differently and it remained essentially alone, while the Stilts
were usually with one or two others.  At Tex's suggestion we also considered
basic plumage Dunlin but the structure and the rump, when seen in flight,
were not right for a Dunlin.  Also, other plumage differences were not right
for Dunlin.  

Matt has his camera and is trying to get good photos, but the bright sun was
making this difficult.  Still, we were most often very close to the bird so
I am sure that he will get something reasonable.  Matt is also going to
write the bird up for the records committee.

For anyone wishing to chase this bird, I can say with reasonable confidence
that Curlew Sandpiper is the correct ID.  Still, it's a life bird for both
me and Matt (and I'm a relatively novice shorebirder) so ... I'll leave it
at that.  If you go, dress appropriately for biting flies and sunburn.

Good luck,
Cathy Carroll
Dearborn, MI