While we wait for the ducks to decide to migrate...

"I'm guessing Mr. Tim J. will weigh in with the correct species name....then we can move on to what Raptor it was..... "

I'm so glad Clint saw this before I did. You have more faith in me then I do when it comes to shorebirds. Yep, westerns sounds right.
Neat photos, not all cluttered with mountains and trees. :)

Tim
 
migrating yet.....

Bob....neat site....I've done the Raptor area in the Blog...neat place.....and usually provides some nice looks at Mustangs to boot....haven't done the banding station but I'll be sure to stop in if I ever make it to that area....thanks for the link...

Steve
 
Steve,

Red Data list endangered means less than 10,000 individuals. They don't seem to differentiate between breeders or pairs. I'ver tried to argue that the breeding component should be included (i.e. population dynamics are VERY different for 10,000 blue-winged teal when compared with 10,000 bald eagles), but so little is know even about age of first reproduction for so many birds, that they were afraid it would result in many more species in the "insufficient data" category.

View attachment b_spoon_billed_sandpiper_dead_niall_moores_birds_korea_jpg.jpg

Clint
 
Great pics Steve. Falcon with peep is sweet. We were watching sandpipers on the flats getting bothered by a falcon whilst gunning Eider on Saturday - Gannets and Razorbills inshore too, so a good day all around (except for the eider and banded black I took home).

Living the life is just great, unless you are a spoony-billed sandpiper, that is.

T
 
Dam Steve I thought you were on another of your RAIL hunts.

I was anticipating the famous tail gate shot at the end of your photos.
 
but I must not have been concentrating on a "single bird" and they all just "got away" somehow......

At least when I got back to the truck I didn't have a "gift" under my door handles ......

Steve
 
I guess your just not that "special" anymore, I would like to catch that guy doing that to my truck, I would give a whole new meaning to "having" someones job!!
 
to a Refuge thread where he's bragging about it AGAIN...of course he says he "never did something like that", replete with the obligatory "lI'm a liar" smiley....oooops I mean "winky" smiley...and as usual the "class" folk, including the moderators, laugh and chime in how "neat" that would be to do.....

Revenge, they say, is a desert best served "cold"......

Steve
 
Steve,

There is no statue of limitations on revenge as long as the perp/victim knows why. Need a guy from "out of town", call me. Took me a week to get my fingernails clean.
 
Steve,
I dont know birds well at all.
So,
I have a question.
Are there more of those little shore birds that have a spooney looking bill?
We saw about 15 opening day this year.We guessed spoonbill piper, because it was the only picture I could find with a bill like that. I had no idea they were so rare, so it must have been something else.
And what about little tiny gulls in Washington? I am talking, they looked like little shore birds until we really looked at them. Definitely gulls, and I bet they were only 8-10 inches long or so. Had a black spot on their cheek.
Never saw anything like them. And if they are something you want to see, let me know. I'll tell you where they were.
Mike
 
comes to anything having to do with nature.....and certainly migratory birds fall into that category, so in this case I think it best not to say "you are NEVER going to see 15 Spoon-billed Sandpopers on an inland body of water in Washington" and just leave it as something less concrete like. "NO WAY, NO HOW, IN THIS LIFETIME, OR ANY OTHER LIFETIME, did you see 15 Spoon-billed Sandpipers on inland freshwater in Washington"....that leaves us a little "breathing room" just in case the Earth's rotation reveresed, rivers changed course and ducks migrated over the upper mid-west without Mark W seeing them........

Spoon-billed Sandpipers breed in Russia and winter as far south as the Phillipines.....depending on what you read there are fewer than a 100,000 as a high to "fewer than a 1,000 breeding pairs" as a low....Five or six records in N.A. with all but one of those being in Alaska......making the "chances" of them being the birds that you saw astronmically slim......(you didn't eat Chinese before you saw them and got a really compelling fortune cookie did you....something like....."breath today and life shall be good"......if that were the case then HELL YEAH they were Spoon-billeds cause Lord knows the only thing more reliable than "the Government is lying about duck numbers", "there are no ducks in my backyard andn THEREFORE there are no ducks anywhere", and "the migration hasn't occured", is a fortune cookie that accurately predicts something like the Sun rising or water freezing when its cold.....

My "guess" on what you saw was either Least, Western or Semi-palmated Sandpipers. All of those are little guys...6" plus a fraction or two....

The statement that I "think" the peep in the Falcon's talons was a "spoon-billed Sandpiper" was a joke....something to see if anyone was looking......

Look up Bonapartes Gull for your gull.....little guys, although a bit over twice the size of your estimate.....the Western Sabdpipers in the picture are 6 to 6-1/2 inches....little guys.....a Bonapartes Gull would be about twice that size....tiny for a gull....white with a black dot behind the eye like you describe...really small bill and delicate looking for a gull....they are common in your area in the summer, (Black Headed in breeding plumage), and you still see them in smaller numbers as long as they have open water to feed in in the winter....

What I REALLY want to see is some Redheads over the decoys....you got any of those?

Steve
 
Steve,

I think I did eat Chinese once and saw a wolf in southern Idaho......darn... next thing I know everyone is eating Chinese on a regular basis.....BURP!! Think I will stick to Mexican food....funny how critters do wander,,,,but I think you covered the odds fairly well on the spoonbill wandering possibilities.....

Once upon a time I did some electroshocking on the Sevier River in Utah and captured 17000 small guys in a mix of leatherside chubs, redside shiners, and juvenile mountain and Utah suckers, in one pool about 75 feet long. There were an estimated 8000 leathersides in the catch. When I sent the report into the state biologist they thought I was eating Chinese, speaking Dutch, and sleepwalking, until I sent photos of the effort. Leatherside are listed as a sensitive species by the State of Utah.

I have not seen any redheads around here either.....maybe I should order take out?? Chinese or Mexican???

Matt
 
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Thanks Steve. I will look up the birds.Good to know there are some others with that spoon bill. They were going to town in the mud.

Gulls sound exactly like what you described.

Redheads...............saw a few today.........but not over the decoys. River froze up while I was on it today. -4 when I launched, 13 degrees when I left.Will have to look somewhere else, unless it opens up again.Did shoot 4 Mallards and 3 geese.
 
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