ML30363621
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Adult, Unknown sex - X
Media notes
This photo was digiscoped through a 45-degree offset (angled) 80mm Swarovski spotting scope with a 20-60X zoom eyepiece (kindly loaned to me by one of the birders on-site that day). It shows typical coloration of Little Stint on much of the head, the nape of the neck, on the fringes of a number of the wing coverts, and on some of the scapulars, as well as very dark centered, breeding type, feathers over much of the top side. (Some areas, including the scapulars, are showing molt toward basic plumage.) It also shows the split supercilium that is seen on Little Stint, as well as a typically shaped Little Stint bill (albeit with its tip, in this instance, inserted into the substrate). The Little Stint regularly fed both by grabbing and by probing.
Observation details
I am providing herewith six photos that document the presence of Little Stint on this occasion. All of these photos were taken via digiscoping. In each case this involved hand-holding a film SLR camera to the eyepiece of a spotting scope in order to get photos showing enough detail of this bird to be useful in decisive identification. One of the six photos herewith was taken through my own scope and the other five through a different scope that one of the other birders kindly allowed me to use. It was a far better scope for this particular purpose than my own, largely because the angled eyepiece helped to support and stabilize the camera, plus it allowed zoom as needed for particular distances. Full details of this birding experience were provided by me in an article entitled "Little Stint (Calidris minuta) near Pike's Beach, Westhampton Dunes, Suffolk County, NY" in "The Kingbird" (Dec. 2000, Vol 50, No.4, pp. 344-357; publication of Federation of New York State Bird Clubs, Inc.). A photo-inclusive, detailed report of this record was accepted by the New York State Avian Records Committee. During its foraging the Little Stint favored areas littered with seaweed and horshoe crab shells and, more generally, relatively higher, dryer areas of the shore. In such areas it frequently found itself in the presence of Least Sandpipers and, occasionally, Semipalmated Sandpipers. The Little Stint featured in this report evinced behavioral characteristics typical of that species, namely, being very energetic and almost always on the move (on long legs that helped it move very fast); and a tendency to be aggressive toward many of the birds entering its presumed feeding territory. It often would confront them with a crouched, head-down posture, obviously intended as a threat, and if that did not work, it would charge rapidly in their direction in such an attitude. This individual also proved itself brave (and accommodating, from our perspective), for it did not fly in response to the low over-flight of more than one plane and a helicopter (separate incidents), circumstances to which many of the other shorebirds in the area took flight. It seemed a self-confident, bold, and very energetic creature.
Technical information
- Dimensions
- 819 pixels x 626 pixels
- Original file size
- 97.27 KB