RE: [ozbirdpix] Sanderling- ref Norman D.van Swelm

[John Leonard <>]

Like many another Birding-aus person I learnt to recognise Sanderling
in the UK, where they were easy to identify ("the very pale wader
running up and down the sandy beach ahead of the waves"!), and
consequently I never noticed the absence of hind-toe.

But this leads me to ask, why then isn't the Sanderling in its own
genus, how different does a sandpiper have to be before it gets shifted
out of Calidris?

John L

On 1/1/06, Mike Simpson <> wrote:

Hi Tony,

Your message caused me to dig out my copy of the English 'Macmillan Field
Guide to Bird Identification' and sure enough, under Sanderling is the
comment "Unlike other waders, it lacks a hind claw (close-range views are
required to establish this)"

I had not realized this in the past, but was used to seeing flocks of
hundreds (possibly thousands) of Sanderlings and Dunlins on my local beach
while living in N.E.England in the 1990s.

Regards, Mike Simpson
Penrith, NSW, Australia


--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message:
'unsubscribe birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to

-- 
John Leonard
Canberra
Australia
www.jleonard.net