birding-aus

Kentish Plover

To: "BIRDING-AUS" <>
Subject: Kentish Plover
From: "Mike Carter" <>
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 18:05:34 +1100
Allan Benson asked:
"Is anybody willing to speculate on the sex and the race of the Kentish Plover at Old Bar? Niven McCrie's bird at Darwin in November 1988 was considered to be of the race dealbatus (Japan, E China) and comparing the picture on the BARC Website and Hayman it looked like a adult male in breeding plumage.
The Old Bar bird is certainly a non-breeding adult or a juvenile and my guess is a juvenile based only on the scruffiness of the bird particularly around the supercilium. However, which race. The bird at Old Bar more closely resembled the nominate race (N Africa, W Europe to Korea) in the overall colour of the bird according to Hayman but maybe the non breeding dealbatus is not as dark as shown in Hayman. Does anybody have an opinion???
Who is writing up the BARC submission??".
 
    Well I reckon the Old Bar bird is also a dealbatus, a female. It is very like fig. j, plate 35 in Hayman et al. Shorebirds, an adult female in breeding plumage, in that it has a large, dark, ear-covert patch, although it has no rufous on the hindcrown, the black areas are not so intense, more diffuse, and the lores are paler. The legs are as fig. l. It is not a juvenile, might be a 1st winter bird, but I suspect an adult moulting from non-breeding.
    It doesn't matter who or how many people make a BARC submission. It is of course imperative that someone does. Anyone putting this on an Atlas form might get a request for a URRF. This should then automatically go to BARC. It is of course preferable that the persons intending to publish make a BARC submission and this should be the finders, Phil Straw and Chris Herbert as, most impressively, they correctly identified their discovery. I'm told that Chris is an Atlasser so will presumably make a submission to accompany and justify the entry on his Atlas form. Apparently he has some photographs, important additional documentation. If he hasn't, I should have some which he (they) are welcome to use.
    One way to avoid the cost and time of providing photographic reproductions, (I've just spent $50.00 on my Ringed Plover submission!), having to write a detailed description, research the literature and provide the diagnosis to justify the identification, is not to put it on an Atlas form! In any case, before me along with Richard Baxter who directed me to the bird, was Anne Lindsey, the local RO. That saves me a lot of work.  
    I hope that this doesn't make me undisciplined or lazy, its just that I have a huge backlog of these things to do.
 
Mike Carter
30 Canadian Bay Road
Mt Eliza   Vic    3930
03 9787 7136
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