ML496884041

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

LT notes: This golden plover was close to the road as soon as we got out the car at Arnold. I was mainly concerned about getting people on it. Of course Pacific is the expected species here, but the coloration of the bird immediately had me questioning that and I asked peoples to take shots as my camera battery was dead. I notified a couple of people on FB and in the field that were chasing pipits or the Bobolink that we’d had an interesting golden plover. If there had been the option to post as Pacific/American that would have been helpful. The lack of yellow tones was what first caught my eye. I think the greyish flanks and belly with the white spotting support American better than Pacific it also doesn't appear leggy to me in the same way Pacific does. I would say that a couple of photos look overly warm compared to how it appeared in the field. The primary projection appeared quite long to me but the extension past the tail less than I'd like for American. The bird flew towards the back of the field at which point I spotted the Bobolink, so attention switched to that. We couldn’t relocate it post Bobolink. So far feedback from birders I respect on both coasts has supported the ID as American though Not all with high degree of confidence . I'm attaching photos by Celia Gerry and Lynzie Flynn but will delete them if they add them themselves.

Technical information

Model

COOLPIX P1000

ISO

250

Focal length

503 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/8.0

Shutter speed

1/500 sec

Dimensions

892 pixels x 961 pixels

Original file size

419.51 KB