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Calidris sandpipers - San Francisco area (USA), December (1 Viewer)

leif10

Member
Hello everyone,

I found myself at Shorebird Marsh Overlook (Marin County, California, USA), on Dec. 28. I took a bunch of photos of the small drab sandpipers in the drizzle, just in case I might be able to come up with IDs later on. Checking the eBird hotspot checklist for that site (Illustrated Checklist - Shorebird Marsh overlook, Marin, California, United States - eBird Hotspot), I was very pleased to find that only three species of Calidris sandpipers are likely to be found there in December - Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, and Western Sandpiper. So, I have added tentative IDs to four of my photos, below. Would you be so kind as to weigh in on their accuracy? (American Avocet is included just for scale.)

Western Sandpiper - these seem a pretty good visual match to field guides and eBird images.

Least Sandpiper - these seem a fairly good visual match, based on narrower, shorter bill, and darker wing/back color than the Westerns. However I don't like the uniform "hood" over the head and upper breast (especially the one in lower right part of photo, also seen elsewhere in poorer-quality photos I took) - that's not something I'm seeing much in the field guides and eBird images. Perhaps, it's just that the photos on eBird are all so good, with feather details, that it's hard to see that as a match to a low-resolution image in mediocre light.

Dunlin - here I am way out of my depth (no pun intended) - there's no way I would be able to distinguish these from several other sandpiper species, except by taking into account expected distributions. The very pronounced, dark, uniform "hood" over head and upper breast does not match especially well what I am seeing in guidebooks and on eBird for Dunlin. Other people's images seem to have much lighter "hood" color, and tend to have some white on the face. Dunlin would be a lifer for me - I guess I've probably seen them before, but was always too intimidated from attempting to ID drab sandpipers.

Thanks for any input.
Leif

PC280290 large tentative IDs.jpgPC280296 tentative IDs.jpgPC280299 tentative IDs.jpgPC280300 tentative IDs.jpg
 
Wow, that's fantastic - thank you Lou! I appreciate your help with this.

I am based in Colorado (central part of USA), where it seems a whole bunch of sandpiper species are "possible" as uncommon migrants in spring & fall...if I manage to spot any of those I will probably be back here with more questions!
 

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