Second Thoughts

[Hughjangillilan at aol dot com]

Earlier in the day our Audubon group thought we were seeing 3 Longbilled 
Dowitchers which we knew would be very unusual for this time of year. 
Probably our perceptions were foggier than we thought!  We were particularly 
keying off the behavior of three long-billed birds probing for food in a 
tight group in typical Dowitcher fashion.  But the remembered back pattern 
kept bugging me and I belatedly turned to the field guides upon returning 
home only to realize to my chagrin that winter Dowitchers are gray and not 
the pattern I recalled. That prompted a call to Mark Stackhouse who helpfully 
enlightened me by indicating that winter behavior of Snipes can be 
Dowitcher-like (small groups feeding together in the open, rapid up and down 
probing, etc.) So, my best guess is that we saw 5 snipes total and no 
Dowitchers. Moral of the story, when in doubt, or fog, or freezing cold, 
consult the field guides anyway, on the spot, for better accuracy!  Hugh 
Gillilan
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