ML170206951
Laguntzailea
Data
Kokapena
- Adina
- Zehaztu gabea
- Sexua
- Zehaztu gabea
Behaketaren xehetasunak
****MEGA. First North American record away from Attu Island, 2nd Western Hemisphere record, 5th North American record overall. Marunich. This bird was tentatively identified as a probable Pin-tailed Snipe, and after a couple of days of research we were quite sure about this identification. Then I re-found it on he 31st and it called several times, clinching the identification. Ryan, Scott, and I were birding Marunich. Scott pointed up a snipe in flight over the water heading to our right (east). It flew by us and I got some reasonably mediocre to useless photos of it, but luckily it looped around and, after hesitating a couple of times about landing, dropped down a couple of hundred yards away. We started walking towards it and we saw it pick up again and actually fly right towards us, dropping down into a dense dry grassy/celery/lupine area about 75 yards in front of us. My impression was of a dark snipe that I thought was smaller than I'm used to for snipes, and with maybe a shorter/thicker bill, although not super short. We had gotten a good enough look at it as to be able to eliminate Jack Snipe, even though we all agreed that we perceived it as a bit smaller and shorter billed than usual. This time we approached it and I got ready to just take photos. It flushed heading right (south) and flew directly away from us, disappearing very very far away, not towards any wetlands at all. We combed the grassy tundra-y area where it looked like it was headed but to no avail. I got a few usable photos. Three are below. 1. First of all, it is clearly not a Common Snipe as the under-wing was dark, and the trailing edge of the secondaries had essentially no noticeable white. Even in the photos there is just an extremely thin and barely noticeable trace of white edging to the secondary feathers, and I'm not even sure how white it really is. This is against a dark background too, so you don't lose any white into the background. The lack of white in the trailing edge seems to point away from Wilson's although obviously this is a variable characteristic in WISN and they can almost completely lack it. 2. The feet project noticeably behind the tail. This is in the range of Pin-tailed. 3. The pale supercilium in front of the eye is VERY expansive, although the eyeline in front of the eye seems reasonably thick and solid. 4. The bill looks a bit stockier and shorter (in the best photo) than I'm used to on WIlson's/Common. Other things: -The edging on all the feathers seem really fresh, indicating a juvenile perhaps. -The paler median covert panel does contrast with the greater covers and secondaries, although this isn't seen best on the first photo. -I can't quite tell what's going on with the internal markings of the coverts etc. -I don't know how to judge the field marks like paler primaries and blunter wings accurately from this, and don't know how valuable this would be. -The lower scapulars are not edged as boldly/widely as on WIlson's, and good for Pin-tailed. This is also good for aging a PTSN as a juvenile. Photos:
Informazio teknikoa
- Eredua
- Canon EOS 7D
- ISOa
- 500
- Distantzia fokala
- 400 mm
- Flasha
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/6.3
- Obturadorearen abiadura
- 1/1250 sec
- Dimentsioak
- 918 pixels x 765 pixels
- Fitxategiaren tamaina originala
- 476.89 KB