ML132893821

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

This was slim sandpiper of medium size that was noticeably but not strikingly smaller and slimmer than the nearby dowitchers. I thought the bill was about twice as long as the head was wide and that it was generally slim and straight, but with a subtle droop distally and a finely pointed tip. The head was small for the size of the bird and it seemed to have a sloping forehead and a somewhat flat-crowned appearance before curving sharply at the nape, with the neck of the neck extending steeply downward to the back. The neck was relatively long and noticeably slimmer than those of the dowitchers. The body was of moderate mass and it was clearly slimmer and more elongate than those of the dowitchers. The wingtips tapered to pointed tips that reached right to the tip of the tail. I noted no primary projection beyond the tertials, but I could have missed a short extension. The undertail coverts were relatively long, in that they reached at least nearly to the tip of the tail. This was a relatively well-marked bird, yet it was clearly molting out of alternate plumage having lost almost all of its color. The forehead and crown were medium-gray with brownish suffusion but no rufous. The cap was demarcated by a whitish to light gray supercilium that extended narrowly from the base of the bill through the supraloral region and over the eye before flaring somewhat as it extended back across the side of the face above the auriculars. I failed to notice the location of the terminus of the supercilium, but I thought it was rounded and I was quite sure that the gray of the crown extended down the back of the neck and then forward across the auriculars the isolate the supercilium. This bird had a subtly masked appearance, with a narrow band that extended from the base of the bill through the lores back to the eye and narrowly under the eye before expanding as a wedge across the auriculars behind the eye. The shade of gray was similar to that of the crown, but without the brownish tones and with no rufous color at all. I thought the throat was whitish, but it was hard to be sure. The breast and sides were coarsely marked with dusky mottling or irregular barring on a paler, possibly whitish or pale gray background. The center of the belly was whitish and I do not think it was boldly marked, but the flanks and undertail coverts were coarsely barred with dusky, if not blackish out to the tips of the undertail coverts. The thighs were light gray and apparently not boldly marked. The back was mixed with fresh, medium-gray feathers and darker ones retained from alternate plumage. I also noticed a few scapulars that were mostly black but with small notches of deep buff to cinnamon. Most of the secondary coverts appeared dusky and at most indistinctly marked, but the greater coverts appeared blackish centrally but with narrow fringes of pale gray or more likely buff that were sharply defined as they extended down the edge and across the tip. The tertials likewise had blackish centers that contrasted conspicuously with narrow fringes of buff or cinnamon that created a finely striped pattern on the rear part of the closed wing. At times I thought the lower edge of the closed wing was darker, but I was not sure if this reflected primary coverts or some other tract. I saw the tail only briefly when the bird took flight and only well enough to see that it and possibly also the rump were paler than the rest of the upperparts. The bill appeared to be entirely dark based on my views of it and the eyes were dark, but I saw the legs only well enough to notice that their uppermost portions were some shade of greenish.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D

Lens

EF400mm f/5.6L USM

ISO

400

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/8.0

Shutter speed

1/2000 sec

Dimensions

1905 pixels x 1380 pixels

Original file size

2.2 MB