Our first Snowy Plover (1 Viewer)

Hi All,

A super suprise this fall, the states (Connecticuts) first Snowy Plover (Kentish to most people on here.) Strangely enough it was found by a british birder who has since decamped to the US. Anyway it was found late yesterday and was refound this morning and seen by numbers of birders from across the state. A beautiful little bird and very co-operative - hanging out in much the same spot for 24hrs, before having a little run around and hopping over to another sand bar. It was actually something of a suprise to run into good numbers of birders in the field - usually you are lucky if you run into a couple. I also managed to find the guy who turned up the Snowy his first Nelson's Sharpie (he'd popped back for pic's) since they split them - not much, but at least it was something in return.

Once again a very enjoyable day - I could get into this twitching -not the same as finding and id-ing your own good bird. However, the thrill of those last few meters as you rush to the location trying to guage from the actions of the encamped birders whether the bird is still around is in my opinion still definitely up there as far as the excitement and adrenalin rushes you get from any birding experience.

Luke.

Could this be the best weekend ever in CT? Having the first state record of Snowy yesterday was amazing then today I went birding with one of the states premier birders (thank god) and he turned up an extremely interesting looking Empid. Some interesting details noted - strong eye ring, short primary projection(6 or 7 counted), long tail, dark-tipped bill, greyish head and back slightly tinged with olivish, soft whit call. Looked way too long and slender for a Least also acting rather strangely staying low and ducking in and out of low scrub and weedy brush. Anyway another excellent birder was called and showed up with a camera - some photo's are being developed as we speak. It's either a bizarre Least or it could be something really rare (dusky or gray?), fingers crossed for either of the latter.

Luke

Hi Luke. Great stuff! I do like Snowy Plovers and I much prefer the American name too - so much more evocative than "Kentish Plover". I see them less than annually here - which is too little. As for the empid... well... they'll always be a mystery to me I guess, but I hope it turns out to be a good 'un for you.

Hi Jason,

The Snowy was great - a fantastic bird. Empids are a real nightmare but experts can get some idea of separating them. Not easy though - we were tracking this bird for some hours getting good looks at the minutae of details and hopefully some very good shots of it. Not for those without a lot of experience with each species - I myself would never try and ID an empid on sight or chip notes - although I can often at least rule out a couple of species depending on various elements of the bird.

We'll see how it all turns out. Just to get an idea of how tough it is though there was a reported Gray Flycatcher in MA last year that was seen by a number of good birders before it was eventually decided to be a Least.

Luke

I've never seen a Snowy but would love to.
I'm not sure if I can phrase this clearly but I think that really good birders are expecting to see rarities and therefore tend to see them. I bird with a couple of really top birders, one is a real shorebird expert and he is always looking for what's different. I'll look through a flock of Semipalms and move on. If something seems a little different, I tend to rationalize why it's different (trick of light, angle I'm viewing from, whatever) and turn the oddity into just another Semi. He looks at each bird individually, expects to find a Western and frequently does. I'm not expecting to find a Western whereas he is. When he points the rarity out to me I can clearly see the difference. It's the same with Baird's.
I'm learning however and now, for example, I go through every Bonaparte's in a flock, looking for Black-headed, expecting to find one and it seems to work.
I think this is one reason why top birders tend to see more rarities than the rest of us.

Great weekend in Florida as well!

All,

The CT goodies are nice, but I'm tipping my hat to the finds in FL as even better birds! Of course I may be a tad biased!

While at the FL Keys Bird Festival, myself and others found an extremely rare Thick-billed Vireo pics at http://keysbirdingfestival.com and follow links to pics at the top of the page! This is only the second documented occurrence I believe of this species although there have been more frequent reports without photo documentation.

At the same time others were viewing a male Western Spindalis in Palm Beach County. While both birds are arguably hurricane planted Carribbean birds, it is likely to suspect the Spindalis is, because this is right where both Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne made landfall.

Best,

Jeff Bouton
Port Charlotte, FL

snowyowl said:

I think this is one reason why top birders tend to see more rarities than the rest of us.

Click to expand...

That is so true, Dan. Of course they also need to be careful that they don't end up seeing rarities that aren't there! It has happened!

Also true! Last week I had to check on a reported Wandering Tattler even though I knew that it was 99.9% certainly a mistaken id. The trouble is that you just never know!

Hi Jeff,

Great birds - but then again you do live in Florida so that's cheating You're not stuck in the birding half-way house that is CT. Great pic of the Vireo - I am now going to look up what a Western Spindalis even looks like. That's so weird you should link to the Fl Keys birding festival as I was really close to heading down this year - In the end for a number of reasons it just wasn't possible so my wife has promised me we can go next year - hopefully something as interesting will show up then - although to be honest even the Keys regulars would hold a load of life birds for me.

Luke