If you want to delve  into the arcane business of confidently recognizing a Long-billed Dowitcher in the midst of short-billeds this time of year, and it’s still early, please go right ahead and let me know when you have a long-billed nailed down.  All the shorebird books take on this subject and, sort of like the fairly recent Gulls book, the more you read, the more confused and uncertain you are likely to become.  Less can be more.  Dump some of the plumage factors and go for structural comparison.  If you are lucky, really lucky, you will have one species beside the other and not a single bird, bill tucked and snoozing.

The reason for bringing this ID quandary (morass) to the fore is that I saw and photographed a dowitcher on July 29th out at the flats inside the opening of Tisbury Great Pond.  Its central tail feathers were rufous toward the tips, where the barring “should” have a white or light buffy color.  Most references do not mention this feature, but Paulson’s Shorebirds of North America does write about the rufous in the tail being an identifier for long-billed.

Well, in this case I do not happen to believe this, because in another shot taken of the same bird, the bill droops a bit in the last third of its length, which feature is mentioned as reliable for picking out a short-billed (versus a straighter bill for long-billed).  Since every set of comparisons for these two species seems to end up in the scrapheap of variability – except for voice, which all the writers embrace as distinctive – the tail feather ground color issue will be at home on the list of “may be a factor, but not reliable taken alone as a single distinguishing mark”.  In my book, anyway.

We all seem to want the elements that will offer us certainty, but like so many other BIG questions, sometimes the more you look, the less you know.  Not really fair, is it?

Check out the tail feather tips and the bill on this West Tisbury dow:

Dows are Cool! Lan

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There are some simple reasons I can’t stay away from watching and photographing purples this time of year.  Firstly, they are here on the Vineyard and fairly uncommon most other places.  I know where to find them when I want to, usually up scouring the rocks at Squibnocket, because they are location loyal.  That’s about the habitat, which is the habitat that shows up in the bird photos below.  They are not always there, but they are likely to be there on a bright winter’s day.

The other factor that brings me back to find them is that they are relatively tame when feeding or resting, even with Stella at my side.  Stella is very respectful and patient when it’s clear that I am trying to move slowly or I’m waiting for the sandpipers to approach me as they move among the rocks.

There were only a few yesterday.  So few that I was keeping track of them.  If you spook one, the others nearby are likely to jump as well.  So I was being careful, moving slowly, placing each step among the stones underfoot.  I was moving the camera back and forth between three of them, all quite close.  When I was done and Stella and I maneuvered back out of the rocks to the sand beach, still moving slowly so as not to upset the pipers, we put up two more that were nearer than the ones I photographed.  They must have been resting, not moving, in the stones.  Pretty amazing.  And I am not bad at spotting them either, picking out their shapes.  So that makes five all together.

Birds are cool!  Lanny

These images and Avian Art fine art prints are available for purchase. Contact me or View my gallery.

I have a list of folks who get an emailed notice from me with a URL to click on when I have posted a new blog.  There are also times when I just send out photos to the list without bothering to blog about them or post them to a listserve.  Not on the list?  Want to be? Just contact me  saying you want to be on the list or, better yet,  subscribe to Feedburner above, in the right side column for automatic blog feeds to your email.  Getting off the list is just as simple.

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Martha’s Vineyard, her rocky shores and the rich marine ecology that surrounds her, is very attractive to Common Eiders looking to winter in a place that grows and gives up enough tonnage of food resources to keep the feathered thousands alive through the coldest months.  The patterns of major sea duck concentration have changed this winter, presumably  moving with the food resource.  There are almost always a smaller number of eiders that congregate near the jetties at Menemsha.  What they were doing when I was there yesterday is what they often do at sea, just in a more confined space: riding the current and feeding, then flying back to take another pass on the current.  They were riding on the incoming tide ripping south between the stone jetties, with the wind at their backs, to enter the broadening waters of the tidal pond.  On cue, on a whim or reacting to an ambulatory threat they pattered into flight north against the wind between the walls of rock  to settle on the sea just outside the harbor, eventually funneling back to repeat the circuit.

This show is there for anyone to watch. I was on the Aquinnah side, but next time I will go out on the Coast Guard dock at the harbor and observe from the comfort of my car.  I include here a few bird photos which I previously sent out to my regular email list.

Birds are cool!  Lanny

These images and Avian Art fine art prints are available for purchase. Contact me or View my gallery.

I have a list of folks who get an emailed notice from me with a URL to click on when I have posted a new blog.  There are also times when I just send out photos to the list without bothering to blog about them or post them to a listserve.  Not on the list?  Want to be? Just contact me  saying you want to be on the list or, better yet,  subscribe to Feedburner above, in the right side column for automatic blog feeds to your email.  Getting off the list is just as simple.

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Those two guys were on scopes and I was stalking feeding birds with my Canon rig.  The best moments for me were hearing the Whimbrel in my sights talk to three others winging by, then lofting to meet them.  And, then, just before we left the beach, a Stilt Sandpiper dropped in very briefly to join two SB Dows.

Whimbrel, Short-billed Dows – so much for the ID factor of the ratio of white to black in the tail feathers, one Semi sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs and a Stilt Sandpiper … not bad for a trio of bird geeks on a July morning on the Vineyard.

By the way, if you are on the Vineyard this weekend, come to my artist reception Sunday 5-7 at the Simon Gallery in Vineyard Haven on Main Street.  That’s August 2nd.

See you there.  It is a weeklong show for Lanny McDowell Avian Art, bird photographs among the Reggae and rock and roll photos of the Vineyard’s own Peter Simon.  His wife Ronni exhibits an extensive line of her own jewelry creations and jewel-like sculptures.

Birds are cool!  Lanny

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