Laurie,
When you say the Great Knots were starting to "dalmate", do you mean
that they were starting to look like Dalmatian dogs (as they do in
breeding plumage)?
I think you've just invented a new verb, albeit one with limited
application.
Colin Scouler.
On 18/03/2007, at 12:33 AM, L&L Knight wrote:
There was a full high tide this morning at the Manly wader roost
[SEQ] this morning, so there was a good turn-out ~ of the order of
1000 birds. There were hundreds of godwits, with quite a few well
into breeding plumage [one with a green flag]. There were also a
quite a few stints, with only a few in the early stages of colour
change [one with a orange flag]. There were also ~60 golden
plovers with a dozen blackening up nicely [one with a green flag]
and the odd hundred tattlers [at least two flagged - one with a
green flag on the right leg and another with a bluish flag on the
left leg]. The Great Knots were starting to dalmate and there were
a dozen shanks in the freshwater pond.
There weren't too many sand plovers hanging about, but one got my
attention. It was in a transitional plumage, with a lot of white
on its face [narrow supercilium and a hint of black across the top
of the face] and a reddish brown chest band. It's crown and back
were a light brown with some darker feather centres and darker
primaries that were a similar length to its tail. In flight, its
legs did not extend beyond its tail and there was a large white
patch in its secondaries. It had dark legs, and a short bill. It
was most likely a Lesser Sand, but the thing I found interesting
about it was that it was sitting on the seawall on its own -
normally the sands congregate in the "beachy" sections, and this
character bobbed its head from time to time. It also had more of a
heads up posture than seems to be the guidebook norm [which is why
guide book illustrations should never be treated as gospel].
Regards, Laurie.
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