Shore Bird (1 Viewer)

[snowyowl]

I took the attached pictures at fairly long distance and in poor viewing conditions. I know that I should be able to id. this bird but every time I look at it, I seem to see something dfferent that is inconsistent with what I originally thought it was. The pictures are obviously unenhanced, just as they came from the camera. I would appreciate an id. on this one.
The pictures were taken at Hillman Marsh, (just up the road from Point Pelee), Ontario, Canada on 6 June 2005.
Thanks.

 

[dbradnum]

I'll start the bidding with Pectoral Sandpiper.

 

[Lucky Birder]

Yes, I'm going with that, particularly from pics 2 and 5.

 

[Keith Reeder]

On pic 2 it's got a lot of pec sand, but I think I'd be stumped if it wasn't for that pic...

 

[snowyowl]

Did you notice the other two birds in pic. 2?

 

[Tranquility Base]

Yes to the logic! But do you see the bird's bill in #1? Looks like a Broadbilled Sand doesn't it? All goes to show how useless a single photo would be! Is the Gull a Franklin's?

 

[prairiemerlin]

In photo one, the shorebird is a White-rumped Sandpiper for sure. Its way to late for Pectoral for one thing, and the touch of pink, and the streaky appearance marks this as a White-rumped. A couple weekes earlier I saw several White-rumps at Hillman Marsh.

#2 shows the White-rumped again along with two Semipalmated Sandpipers.

#3 shows the same as above

#4 shows a Semipalmated Sandpiper and a White-rumped (facing away)

#5 shows what appears to be a White-rumped, but its hard to tell.

The gull is a Bonaparte's Gull.

 

[Lucky Birder]

White-rumped is a fair shout and that did cross my mind before I saw Dbradnum's post. It's just too small an image for my liking.

 

[dbradnum]

White-rumped is a fair shout and that did cross my mind before I saw Dbradnum's post. It's just too small an image for my liking.

Yeah, I'm fairly happy to bow to US knowledge of "their" birds on this one, esp. given the distant photos. I've certainly not seen WRS in summer plumage, so don't associate the sharply demarcated breast streaking with that species (whereas I do with Pec). There isn't a shot that shows the classic WRS attenuated shape, either, so it didn't immediately spring to mind.

Not sure about the gull - I could be convinced it's not even a bird from those photos!

 

[dbradnum]

In fact....

If, for "the gull", we're talking about bottom right of shots 1-4, then it is not a bird!

For my money, that's a piece of black mud, and two angled white feathers (or similar), where the breast and undertail appear to be!

 

[Larry Lade]

I believe Neil is probably correct with his Semipalmated and White-rumped Sandpipers call.

But, I do not think that there is a gull in the photo, just mud and vegetation.

 

[Keith Reeder]

Well there you go - I wouldn't know a semi P or a WR if they stood up in my soup!

 

[snowyowl]

Well, I'm glad that I wasn't alone in having difficulty with id' on these birds. White-rumped was my original thought but some of the pictures really didn't seem quite right. It was around 32 C and very sunny when I was taking the pictures plus the colour of the mud seemed to make it very difficult to pick out birds on the flats. There were a lot of Mallards in the marsh, at least 500+ but they were almost invisible against the mud. I've never run across such difficult conditions for viewing.

 

[Lucky Birder]

Try to get a bit closer next time Snowy ; )

 

[snowyowl]

Try to get a bit closer next time Snowy ; )

Those were taken using my Nikon 4500 at max zoom and my scope at 20x across a channel and marsh. I'd couldn't swim the channel carrying my scope etc but I'll work on it for next time.