birding-aus

Two Kentish Plovers

To: <>
Subject: Two Kentish Plovers
From: "Alan Morris" <>
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 20:58:12 +1000
Hi Birders,
Last Sunday 7 April 2002, two Sydney birdos, Ray Stokes and Jim Valentine travelled up to Old Bar to look for the Kentish Plover. They found the bird towards the southern end of the Little Tern fenced area nearest to Old Bar. This bird was with other waders on the high tide line but eventually the waders were flushed and they flew further northwards along the beach to about where the pink bucket used to be (?). Eventually they re-found the bird, there were also Double-banded and one Mongolian Sand Plover in this group. As they were watching the Kentish Plover, another Kentish Plover flew in and landed within a few metres from the first bird! While they were close together, it was not actually possible to get both birds in their telescope at the one time. The birds superficially resembeld each other. They rang David Siems from Old Bar to tell him what they saw that afternoon, and decided to stay over-night to see if they could find both birds again the following morning. However they could not find even one Kentish Plover the next day and so they returned to Sydney.
 
On arrival home they rang to report their sighting to me but I was busy at meetings etc.intially so I finally caught up with them last night. They described to me the usual description of the Kentish Plover observed at Old Bar with the exception that the bird closest to them definately had greenish yellow legs and there was a narrow band of brown feathers dividing the collar on the back of the neck into two. I also saw this on the bird that I saw some time ago but at the time considered that a nape formed when the bird stood in a certain position. In "Shorebirds of the World" (Hayman et al 1986), some of the sub-species are illustrated having a narrow connection between the brown of the crown and the top of the neck, thus dividing the pale collar into two.. Neither Jim or Mal are on the net so I have have had no written information as yet. There have been previous claims of two Kentish Plovers at Old Bar but this is the first time that two have been seen together.
 
Alan Morris
Records Officer. Birding NSW
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • Two Kentish Plovers, Alan Morris <=
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU