Hi everybody,
I was out in the Ebro Delta (the famous wetlands south of Barcelona) this morning. At some point I found these two plovers in the middle of a flock of lapwings.
There has been a Pacific Golden Plover reported from the area for a while, and while I had no specific info (the last sighting I know of was ten days ago), I wonder if this was it.
The two birds were resting side by side, and the one on the right did appear notably smaller and slimmer, with a fairly stout bill. It did also appear to have longish tibia, and an elongated rear-end?
After about an hour, they took off with the flock of lapwings, and I got a bunch of crappy flight photos, that do seem a show a smaller bird with slimmer wings and dusky axillaries. There's a suggestion that the toes project beyond the tail tip (especially the one where he flew directly overhead), but the photos are too bad to be sure.
So, Pacific, or wishful thinking?
As always, many thanks for the expert opinions.
T
I was out in the Ebro Delta (the famous wetlands south of Barcelona) this morning. At some point I found these two plovers in the middle of a flock of lapwings.
There has been a Pacific Golden Plover reported from the area for a while, and while I had no specific info (the last sighting I know of was ten days ago), I wonder if this was it.
The two birds were resting side by side, and the one on the right did appear notably smaller and slimmer, with a fairly stout bill. It did also appear to have longish tibia, and an elongated rear-end?
After about an hour, they took off with the flock of lapwings, and I got a bunch of crappy flight photos, that do seem a show a smaller bird with slimmer wings and dusky axillaries. There's a suggestion that the toes project beyond the tail tip (especially the one where he flew directly overhead), but the photos are too bad to be sure.
So, Pacific, or wishful thinking?
As always, many thanks for the expert opinions.
T
