Pacific Golden Plover at Fish Springs

[Mark Stackhouse <westwings at sisna dot com>]

I was out at Fish Springs NWR this weekend on a campout with my son's
scout troop. While birding with the boys Sunday morning (10/21), we came
upon a juvenile Pacific Golden Plover. The bird was at the north end of
Curlew Unit, along the road which divides Curlew and Egret Units. It was
about midpoint between the east and west ends of this road, about 40
yards off the road to the south, on a small mudflat island that has a
small pile of dead wood on it. The bird does not appear well, and was in
the exact same location at about 2:30 this afternoon. It's walking with
a limp, and I never saw it fly. Most of the time it was resting amongst
the dead wood.

The bird is not as bright yellowish as some of the juvenile Pacific
Golden Plovers I've seen, and although the broad supercillium is
definitely yellowish (more than on most American juveniles), the overall
coloration is probably in that overlap area with American Golden Plover.
However, all of the other field marks are solidly Pacific. Most
importantly, the primary extension shows three primaries beyond the last
secondary/tertial, and they are very unevenly spaced, with the outer two
primaries very close together, and the innermost about halfway out.
Also, there is a very prominant auricular spot, the bill is a bit
thicker than on many Americans, the legs appear longer, and there is no
white along the base of the flight feathers on the upper surface of the
wing (this last feature was visible only when the bird stretched, which
it did several times during the hour+ that I watched it). I did manage
to take several photographs, but the distance may be a bit too great to
show much - I'll have to see when I get them back.

I don't think this bird is going anywhere, but how much longer it lives
is another matter. It looked to me like it was on it's way out quickly.

Good birding!

Mark

Mark Stackhouse
Westwings, Inc.
1432 Downington Ave.
Salt Lake City, UT 84105
tel./fax. (801) 487-9453
westwings@sisna.com


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