ML385257991

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Behaviors

Molting

Observation details

**Rare and very late; continuing bird found by Stanton Bird Club yesterday. --F. Sanborn Rd. is entirely bordered by private property. Parking is best at the beginning of the dirt road off Access Rd, where you can walk down near the shore and view the sandspit from the roadside.-- I'm unaware whether or not someone has asked the owners for permission to access this spot, but after a bit of hesitating I joined other birders down on the sandspit to view the godwit (previously out of sight around the corner from the road). The bird was originally distant and harshly backlit, but after a few minutes it picked up and flew by us along the shore and landed much closer (and in better light) along the muddy edge of the sandspit. Worked its way closer and was very unwary of us, allowing excellent views of it. Noted a medium-large shorebird (smaller than nearby Ring-billed Gull) with overall gray-tan tones and an absurdly long, upturned, two-toned bill. The pale supercilium and whitish underparts were evident even at a long distance with scope. Much closer views revealed mixed patterns on the mantle, appearing to be mostly juvenal feathers with a tannish base color and zig-zaggy white-and-dark-brown bars mostly in the scapulars and tertials; a few scaps were replaced and were a uniform pale gray color. The wing coverts were overall paler than the rest of the upperparts. The upper back and crown were dusty-brown with darker markings along the centers of the feathers. The throat and neck were pale gray and faded to clean white in the undertail coverts. On several occasions the bird raised its wings above its back or stretched them out behind it, revealing a strong black-and-white pattern to the outer wing (black primaries with white stripe along the base and black primary coverts) and a black tail with white uppertail coverts. This was also evident in flight. The underwing showed a striking patch of jet black in the axillars and underwing coverts, bordered by a strong white stripe. The bill was two-toned, with the maxilla appearing mostly dark with some pink along the lower edge and the lower mandible dark at the tip and graduating to pink in the half closest to the head. The legs usually appeared all black but occasionally looked to be somewhere between slate-gray and steel-blue in color (maybe a trick of the lighting?). The bird foraged in a similar fashion to a dowitcher, with vertical probing ("sewing machine") motions but less rapid. Used a flick of the bill to toss back larger food items.

Technical information

Model

COOLPIX P900

ISO

100

Focal length

250 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/400 sec

Dimensions

4391 pixels x 2555 pixels

Original file size

1.96 MB