Fri-D: Dowitchers

In New Jersey, in May, they're ALL Short-billed Dowitchers.

Now I know that's an exageration, but only by a whisker, and yet there have been a high number of reports of Long-billed Dowitcher this spring. Having NEVER seen a Long-billed Dowitcher (LBDO) in May in NJ, I have to ask myself, is there something wrong with me? Do I have a disease preventing me from seeing LBDO, or worse, do I not know what a LBDO looks like or sounds like? One must consider one's failings, so I thought, who can I ask for help? How about Michael O'Brien, Richard Crossley and Kevin Karlson, authors of The Shorebird Guide, NJ residents, and friends of mine? If anyone knows what's up with LBDO in spring, it's them. So I asked them to answer the following question:

In May in New Jersey, are Long-billed Dowitchers:

a) Annual in small numbers, such that an experienced birder can expect to find one or two each year with a strong effort?
b)Annual in very small numbers, such that an experienced birder might miss them in some years despite a strong effort?
c) Very rare and probably not annual, often missed by experienced birders?
d) Your answer. . . .

Michael answered, "I would say B is probably closest to accurate, which would give them about the same status as Curlew Sandpiper. They may seem a bit rarer than that, but are certainly less likely to be detected than Curlew Sand."

Richard answered, "As far as the coastal marshes go, I would say c. I have not birded Forsythe enough in Spring to really know what the status is there but I don't recollect teams getting it in the bird race. I did see a report from last week of a few (4?) at your place and wondered about the record - did you see them?"

And Kevin answered, "(B) is the answer here. LBDO is often hard to find in spring, with hendersoni SBDO often mistaken for LBDO, even by "experienced" birders."

So there you go. My own answer hovers between super rare in May and something rarer than that, so between B and C. I have seen LBDO in March and April, after milder winters when a few wintering LBDO's might survive and still be around. But not yet in May. However, I concede that better birders than I have found LBDO in May in NJ, but not bloody often, as Richard would say.

Kevin kindly provided the below image, of a Long-billed Dowitcher on the left and a hendersoni race Short-billed (the latter taken at Heislerville, NJ this week) on the right, so ask yourself, can I really tell these two apart?

Much is made of the structural differences between the two species, and they are real. Long-billed has been characterized as looking like it swallowed a grapefruit, i.e. rounded with a higher back and deeper belly compared to Short-billed's slimmer look. Here's the thing, though: Most Short-billed Dowitchers fly up to NJ from points far south, and arrive skinny. They then feed like crazy and before departure can look so fat you'd think they'd have to walk to Canada to nest, there is no way they could fly as fat as they are. So it is completely possible to be at, say, Heislerville, and see a skinny dowitcher next to a fat dowitcher, and both of them will be Short-billed, as will the thousands around them.

Kevin was kind enough to provide the following details on i.d.ing the two: "I have attached a shot of a LBDO look-alike (breeding hendersoni SBDO) that Jonathan Meyrav and I saw at Heislerville on May 10 [this is the bird in the right photo, above]. It is very similar to LBDO, but differs by its short bill with blunt tip and slight kink near the tip; by the very broad orange and white feather edges on the back feathers; and by the spots rather than strong bars on the upper flanks, lower flanks and vent. The body shape is rounded on this bird because it has been feeding heavily and is fully nourished, but the weight balance is more evenly balanced in front of and behind the legs, and it does not show a chest-heavy weight distribution with broad shoulders and thick neck that is typical of LBDO. The bill of this SBDO has a comparatively deep base compared to LBDO's shallower based bill with a more slender overall shape and flatter tip. This bird would probably be called a LBDO by a good number of birders, even experienced ones. Thanks for bringing this topic up, Don."

So there you have it from the experts. Be careful, stay within your abilities. And you can always use voice: "keek" for LBDO and a rippling "tu-tu-tu-tu" for Short-billed.

Or you can simply go with the notion that in May, in NJ, they're all Short-billed Dowitchers.

Thoughtful Thursday

“Sticking your head in the sand does not prevent the tide from coming in.”
- Anonymous

Wordless Wednesday: Willet

The Birdiest Weekend?

[Adult Broad-winged Hawk over the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher along Seagrove Avenue in Cape May, NJ this morning. The broad tail bands and barred breast make it an adult. Click to enlarge photo.]

It was a weekend full of highlights, with the World Series of Birding being run and some fancy birds found the day after in Cape May. I happen to have a special fondness for Broad-winged Hawks because of so many positive experiences with them, like big flights at Chimney Rock in the fall years ago and watching them build nests in High Point State Park in the spring, so I'll call the two that became my year Broad-wingeds my personal avian highlight.

What, not the Swallow-tailed Kite, Mississippi Kite, or Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, you ask? Okay, it's a tie - everything was a highlight. Thanks to west Texas a few weeks ago, the flycatcher was not a year bird, but the kites, appearing at the "Stevens Street Hawkwatch," were. The Stevens Street hawkwatch is simply the highest point on Stevens Street, near the Beanery on Cape Island, and when kites are reported anywhere in Cape May, this is where locals go to look for them. As Vince Elia put it, never chase a kite where it was last seen, because it's not there anymore.

It was Vince who found the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and texted it to Keekeekerr while many of the rest of us were sharing highlights from the 30th running of the WSB. Many, many people got to see that bird, a lovely long-tailed male, rushing over there once the WSB program was over. It was like looking for cheetahs on a modern African safari  - you don't look for cheetahs, you look for Land Rovers, or in this case, Prius's and other cars parked on Seagrove and birders gathered around scopes.

My WSB team, consisting of me, Pete Dunne, Will Russell of Wings, and Luke Seitz, a birding phenom and Cornell freshman, scored 143 species on a "route" that began with a big stay on the hawkwatch at Cape May Point State Park (from which we garnered 67 species), and then evolved into a routeless survey of Cape May and Cumberland counties. We crept through Belleplain, ears to the windows for Summer Tanagers and Hooded Warblers, worked Heislerville where Luke picked a handsome Stilt Sandpiper from the second pool, and finished with 143 species in the marshes and woods of Cumberland County in the Dividing Creek area, which were riddled with noseeums, a.k.a. gnats, and also birds. Perhaps I need to revise the weekend highlight, to a Chuck-wills-widow on Hansey Creek Road  that called point blank next to us, then, when I imitated its call, flew over our heads and down the road out of sight.

"Fri-d:" Extremes

 Telling the yellowlegs apart is difficult, but this one at Heislerville last Saturday stopped me right away as a Lesser. Here are two views of the same bird, which has a short  bill even for this species, about equal to the width of the head. So this one is a "gimmee:" Lesser Yellowlegs, almost certainly a male because of the short bill (female shorebird bills are longer on average than males.) I generally say that if the bill is 1.2X the width of the head or less, it points to Lesser, 1.3X or greater points to Greater. With practice, this is the most helpful way, next to voice, to tell the yellowlegs apart.

The illustrates an important point: Within species, there is variation. There are short- and longer-billed Lesser Yellowlegs (and Greater), and short- and longer-billed Semipalmated Sandpipers and most other shorebirds, too. Birds of the same species of course can vary in plumage, too. That's why it's always useful to ask questions like, "What's THIS Lesser Yellowlegs look like?"