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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tomjenner" data-source="post: 1765026" data-attributes="member: 8453">Bill Clark showed me some of his photos of hundreds of individuals he photographed on passage in Alaska. Although there was a lot of variation there was also a very distinctive patterning to the tails. He has also photographed hundreds of specimens showing similar patterning. This was a couple of years ago, so I don't remember the details. He seemed very convinced of the separation, but it seemed (at the time at least) to be more based on plumage characteristics than anything else and I wondered if that would be sufficient to justify a split. I look forward to seeing the arguments in his final paper.Tom</blockquote>