ML30822051

Age and sex

Juvenile, Unknown sex - X

Media notes

juvenile American Golden-Plover, San Simeon Creek Mouth, San Luis Obispo County, California, 31 Oct 2006, Tom M. Edell

Observation details

I first stopped on the southwest side of the Hwy 1 bridge where I noticed a Golden-Plover in the creek mouth lagoon. I drove to the nw side of the bridge and walked down to the lagoon edge for better looks at the bird and to take digiscope photos. American Golden-Plover: I first saw this bird from about a thousand feet away and immediately could tell it was not a BBPL due to the warmer color and smallish bill. After driving to the northwest side of the Hwy 1 San Simeon Creek Bridge I again scoped the bird with my KOWA scope and could see that it was not a really bright individual and therefore likely an American GP. I walked down the short bluff to the beach and studied the bird through my scope and took several photos. Although this species is often described as being somewhat gray in color, it appeared more of a brownish gray. The head showed a brown cap that on close inspection was evenly streaked with brown and gold. The face had a whitish supercillium, and was whitish around the base of the bill and in the throat. There was a golden wash around most of the large dark eye save for above. The bill was all dark and if turned around would project about 2/3 to ¾ back across the head. The nape and neck was streaked with brown and gold. The back was dark brown with gold spotting, but did not appear golden. The wings were brown and checkered with white and four primary tips were visible beyond the tertials. The undersides were mottled with a brownish gray across the breast and down the flanks. A somewhat prominent necklace was visible below the throat. The belly and undertail were whitish. The legs were grayish.

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot A520

Focal length

23.2 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.5

Shutter speed

1/125 sec

Dimensions

2156 pixels x 1526 pixels

Original file size

706.49 KB