25 July 2014

LSAP remaineth

As we enter the last week of July, I’m looking forward to August and hoping some stray stints or odd shorebirds get blown in.  But before you accuse me of being ungrateful, I AM happy the LESSER SAND-PLOVER is still present.  Here are some more recent photos of it:
 


At this point in the season we get to search through juvenile shorebirds including the local breeders.  If you flip open your trusty bird book and look at juvenile LEAST SANDPIPER, you’ll notice it can look quite similar to LONG-TOED STINT.  Yesterday was the first, bright juvenile LEAST SANDPIPER I’ve seen; time to start being more careful!  Of course, you can still see odd feathering, some remnant down, on the back of the head which is an obvious clue:
 
Another species we're seeing plenty of juveniles of is RED-NECKED PHALAROPE.  They’re quite distinct with bright orange braces on an otherwise dark mantle:
 
Speaking of youngsters, this bleached-out photo shows a young NORTHERN FULMAR next to a preening parent:
 
Much less angelic is this gull up at the Webster Seawatch.  Best I can tell, it’s a 1st-summer going into 2nd-winter AMERICAN (smithsonianus) HERRING GULL:
I'll leave you with a stunner, the crowd-favorite TUFTED PUFFIN: