ML624159067

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

It was pretty windy this day, within what I feel safe paddling in but fairly stiff breeze of around 20 mph from the NNE, and the tide was extraordinarily high, probably a full foot above usual high water. I zipped down past Yellow Bar Hassock with the wind at my back super quickly, since all of it was completely underwater, including parts that hardly ever submerge. Here, too, on Ruffle Bar, I was able to paddle right through parts of the southern marsh that might get wet, but are never drowned—today I was floating a full six inches above the field of salt hay. I tucked into the inlet on the southwestern corner of the island, and there the island itself acted as a nice windbreak. I was able to drift in close to the sandbar/midden where many shorebirds roost at high tide, and parts of it were still out of the water so lots and lots of birds were gathered there. This plover caught my eye as a candidate juvenile Common Ringed and I started taking pictures. The photos show an even-width dark mask through the cheeks, with the dark extending to the bottom of the gape rather than ending distinctly above it with a little white wedge, as is normally the case with Semipalmated. The breastband is also wide, but broken in the middle, with wide drooping lobes to both sides of the gap, and the white supercilium is distinct but doesn't come down below the eye. I studied dozens and dozens of photos of juveniles of both species, and that combination seems pretty good for Common Ringed. I tried to take photos of it walking around and am not really satisfied with the images I got of the toes, but in looking at all those photos on eBird, I found that even in images that showed the toes well, the palmation on Semipalm can be kind of subtle and I wasn’t always able to see the difference well. Probably my inexperience. Interestingly, I saw later that Andrew Farnsworth, Doug Gochfeld, and Marshall Iliff published a post on BirdCast this same day noting that weather patterns were set up well for Common Ringed Plover to appear in the northeast during the coming week. (https://birdcast.info/news/species-to-watch-northern-wheatear/) I had actually forgotten about this bird when I saw their post on Sunday or Monday and remembered oh yeah, I had that bird I was suspicious of and took all those pictures, I should go take a closer look at those. I have been looking hard at Semipalms for years hoping for one of these, so I was worried about wishful thinking clouding my judgment. So I showed these photos to Tripper, who suggested I send them to Jay McGowan. Jay further showed them to Marshall Iliff, and they both concurred with Common Ringed. Jay also noted the frosty cap and lack of an orbital ring, although the orbital ring can sometimes be hard to see. County bird #341! If accepted, I believe a first county record and something like the fifth or sixth maybe state record. (Maybe more I don’t know about and can’t easily find on eBird or NYSARC.)

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF300mm f/4L IS USM

ISO

320

Focal length

300 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/1250 sec

Dimensions

2735 pixels x 1823 pixels

Original file size

1.04 MB