ML646326082

Podrobnosti k pozorování

***Very rare, but likely overlooked in New England. Found at Milford by Matt Bell. Linda sent me her images and I quickly noticed that they looked like westerns! I went to Short Beach and studied them very well at close range in Tom’s scope. One bird is a very obvious western; the other is a little trickier. The combination of pink bills (very pink on the “obvious”one) that contrast strongly against legs, lighter color, broad fringing on the upperparts, broad white flank stripe, longer, thinner necks than Greenland contributing to a lanky appearance, and lack of the compact impression typically shown by Greenland all add up for gambelli. The less obvious bird is smaller, darker, and a bit orange-billed compared to its friend. But details of upperpart fringing, flank stripe, and head/neck color solid for gambelli. This bird’s appearance is quite normal for Western, as a media search will show. some gambelli can be quite Greenland-like. I admit that there are pix of birds out there that I would have likely thought were Greenland here. The bill color on the trickier bird is a non-issue. There are westerns with bright orange bills (this bird was pinkish-orange), including in the flock of 35 that represented CT’s first state record. Alex Lamoreaux suggested that it’s a male and female. I studied for a while and attempted pix. Linda and others have much better pix. Fantastic!!! Represents the 3rd CT record on eBird