ML80697301

Age and sex

Adult, Unknown sex - X

Observation details

Willet found on 31 May at Wye Lake by Jukka. We searched Wye Lake and didn't see the bird, so Cameron figured that another good place to look would be the marsh between town and the airport. Incredibly, the Willet was there. I got fairly good photos of the bird as it fed in the marsh, and we were careful not to flush it. This was a large and robust shorebird, larger than Greater Yellowlegs; it has a heavy, long bill, that was tapered towards the tip indicating Western Willet; bill colour was greyish at the base becoming blackish half way to the tip; eye was black with pale whitish eye ring; the overall colour was buffy/grey with darker grey/black streaks on head, neck and throat, and dark grey/black baring on flanks back and wing coverts, with thickest barring on tertials; the undertail was whitish-buff with thin scattered bars; the primaries were black, and the tail was pale buff. We didn't see it in flight. The identification of the bird as Western Willet is based on the overall fairly pale buffy-grey colour, and the somewhat tapered bill.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D200

ISO

640

Focal length

420 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/1250 sec

Dimensions

2449 pixels x 1633 pixels

Original file size

1.12 MB