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difficult sandpiper
- To: Carolina Birds <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
- Subject: difficult sandpiper
- From: Shantanu Phukan <phukan@email.unc.edu>
- Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 09:52:40 -0400 (EDT)
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
While canoeing at University lake yesterday i saw two sandpipers that i
simply cannot identify and they've been nagging at my mind all day;
I am writing in the hope that someone on this list might offer a thought
or a clue that will clinch the identicfication.
also saw two sandpipers that I can't identify. They were the
size of a solitary, so they were not peeps. They were not spotties,
solitaries, dowitchers or Yellowlegs. They had finely streaked gray
breasts with the streaking ending in a farily neat bib midway down the
chest. No eye ring, but a faint eye stripe, the back feathers were quite
noticeable for being outlined in lighter brown than the center, giving the
back a finely scalloped look. The bill seemed to be slightly drooped at
the end, but i did not get a good look at it. I did not notice the colour
of the rump or the legs. They were walking away from us feeding in the
short new grass sprouting up on the lakeshore. While the abruptly ending
bib is diagnostic of pectoral sandpipers, these sandpipers did not have
that pigeon-headed look which peterson claims pectorals do have. Nor did
they fly in a zig-zag pattern when at last they flew. The jizz reminded
me much more of stilt sandpipers but their back feathers were much browner
than the stilts illustrated in either Peterson or nat. Geographic.
Any thoughts? Should I write them up as mystery sandpipers?
*****************************************************
SHANTANU PHUKAN
Lecturer in Urdu-Hindi & Indian Literature
University of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill
Curriculum in Asian Studies
Alumni Hall 413C
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599
phukan@email.unc.edu
919-962-6825
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