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Monday, October 31, 2011

Birding Update

Sorry for not posting recently, I have been relaxing for the last few days after sending in my finished Young Birder of the Year Contest submission on the 26th. Since then I have had some cool birding experiences.

RISD Beach, Barrington RI 10:50-11:40am Oct/27/11 Raining
The water level was extremely high on this date. Flooding both sides of the marsh. To get to the beach we had to wade through at least 8 inch high waters, where usually it was less than an inch above our toes. A few Brant were floating of the edge of the beach. Being mercilessly sloshed up and down by the frolicking wavelets. These small geese had just recently migrated down from their Northern nesting grounds. They spend the winter months here, often numbering in the hundreds. A lone white bird with a large yellow spear of bill, and long black legs stood calmly in the rain-poked waters of the marsh. This Great Egret was soon joined by a second bird of the same species who flew in from the south east. A few small gull-like birds were flying about over the water. I suspect that they were Bonaparte's Gulls. But never having gotten a great look at them and having seen a Forster's Tern fly past, I was unable to confirm my suspicions.

Looking down the beach I noticed a section where the choppy water appeared to be boiling. A fin appeared in this disturbed patch and then slipped back under then another and another. They were dolphins!!! They were slowly moving up the beach, coming from the SE. After taking a bunch of photos and marveling at the swimming skills of these remarkable creatures, we went back into the warmth and dryness of our car and took the quick drive to the Barrington Public Beach. Sitting in the car we watched the dolphins feeding out in the water from the parking lot. Again we took a bunch of photos and marveled at the swimming skills of these remarkable creatures. Listening to the radio the next day we learned that these dolphins were identified by "Save the Bay" (the local bay saving agency:)) as Common Dolphins. Looking in the Peterson field guide to "Mammals of North America" I was unable to find a dolphin named the "Common Dolphin" except for the Long-nosed and the Short-nosed Common Dolphins (which the ones we saw didn't look anything like) and the famed Common Bottle-nosed Dolphin (which starred in the movie "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in which they sang the well known song "So long and thanks for all the fish":)). The Common Bottle-nosed looked exactly like the dolphins we saw and I have to assume that they are one and the same. The next day we heard an interview with these dolphins on NPR - nah just kidding. Apparently this was the farthest a dolphin has ever been seen up the Providence River!!!
Supposedly there were 8 to 10 of these dolphins, though I was only able to count six.


Here's a list of the birds seen:
Greater Yellowlegs 3
Herring Gulls X (X means that I was unable to count their numbers)
Brant 8
Great Egrets 2
Mallards 3
American Crows 3
Black-capped Chickadees 2
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Ring-billed Gulls 2
Double-crested Cormorants 3
Horned Grebe 5
Forster's Tern 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Killdeer 1
Downy Woodpeckers 2
and Song Sparrow 1.

In Belcher Cove in Warren 12:00pm Oct/28/11
I spotted this Pied-billed Grebe while we were driving down Market Street. It had an infuriating habit of sinking submarine style below the water's surface every time I raised my camera to take a photo. The only other highlights at this location were a pair of American Black-Ducks and a fly over male Belted Kingfisher.

Mount Hope Farm, Bristol, RI 12:20-1:50pm Oct/28/11
This location always seems to rack up the biggest lists for me. I have made lists here twice - once in May and once the time I am writing about at the currant moment. My Ebird list already has 56 species for this location (a link to ebird http://ebird.org/content/ebird/).

For the whole of the walk we were being swarmed with an intense flock of Butterbutts (also and more commonly known as Yellow-rumped Warbler). In the duck pond we had 3 Gadwalls, 1 female and two males, 3 Mallards, again 1 female and 2 males, 23 Canada Geese and a single Mute Swan (later in the walk while returning to the car I spotted a male American Black Duck feeding with one of the male Gadwalls). In a brushy patch bordering the meadow I found an Eastern Bluebird, a Swamp Sparrow and a bunch of Song Sparrows. One of these Song Sparrows was singing a strange bubbling song, completely varying from any song omitted from the beak of any Song Sparrow that I have ever heard. I guess it sounded more similar to the song of a Lincoln's Sparrow. Further down the paved path I would hear another song like this one. On the other side of the path directly across from the sparrows a Hermit Thrush popped briefly into view. While looking at the Hermit Thrush a noise came from directly above me - "peea-peaa" called the female Northern Flicker perching 12 feet above.
Out on the bay I had 4 Horned Grebe, a Common Loon, 19 Double-crested Cormorants 26 Herring Gulls and a lone Great Black-backed Gull.
On are return walk just before the pond I saw a "Yellow" Palm Warbler, the more brightly colored of the 2 Palm Warbler subspecies.

A male Gadwall, the females are similar to female Mallards.


A Horned Grebe

A Butterbutt aka. Yellow-rumped Warbler

A Swamp Sparrow

Here's a list of birds seen:
Northern Mockingbirds 2
American Crows 10
Song Sparrows 12
Yellow-rumped Warblers 37
Mallards 3
Gadwalls 3
Mute Swan 1
Canada Geese 23
Blue Jays 4
Dark-eyed Juncos 6
Eastern Bluebird 1
Northern Flickers 2
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Black-capped Chickadees 4
Swamp Sparrow 1
Hermit Thrush 1
Herring Gulls 36
Cedar Waxwings 5
Tufted Titmice 2
Carolina Wren 1
American Robins 7
Double-crested Cormorants 19
Common Loon 1
Horned Grebes 4
American Goldfinches 2
Eastern Towhees 3
House Finches 4
Northern Cardinals 2
Turkey Vulture 1
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Downy Woodpeckers 3
Eastern Phoebe 1
"Yellow" Palm Warbler 1
and American Black-Duck 1.

Blackstone Park, Providence, RI 8:15-8:50am Oct/30/11
I saw a female Wood Duck swimming with a few Mallards in the pond. A Wood Duck is a nice find in the Providence area. It had snowed about half an inch the night before. It was quite strange to see snow and green-leafed oaks in the same forest.

Bold Point, Providence, RI 11:30-1:50pm Oct/30/11
I had my father drop me and Ben off at Bold Point yesterday, having nothing better to do.
One of the first finds of the walk was an agile being of a bird who flapped briefly past to soar about with some gulls for half a minute before zipping off on another errand. I have no idea why this Peregrine Falcon chose to soar about with these gulls - maybe it was working on its halloween costume, a Herring Gull. Everyone knows that a costume is ten times more convincing when you don't just dress up like the thing mimicked, but mimic the behavior of the thing that you are mimicking.
For example my brother is dressing up as a leaf pile this halloween - he plans to sit in the backyard all night long and hope that he gets some candy. This, though being a very effective way of mimicking a leaf pile, is not the greatest way to rack up the candy. (Anyone wondering if I am going trick-or-treating? Well, I'm not). Anyways let me get back to the story. A little further down the path I came across a flock of sparrows, practically all of which were Field Sparrows. These long tailed, pink billed birds are one of my favorite sparrow species. They were RI year birds.

A Field Sparrow

Out over the water 3 Boniparte's Gulls flew past. I checked out a trail that I have never gone down before. I didn't go far due to flooding but I did find a Hermit Thrush who hopped up onto an exposed branch. Annoyingly my camera wouldn't focus and this is all that I came up with.

The Hermit Thrush

Making our way back to the parking lot I spotted a female American Kestrel perching precariously on a telephone line. I really enjoy seeing American Kestrels - they are such beautiful birds. While watching a Field Sparrow hoping about a bush, I amazingly missed a Wilson's Snipe zip 4 feet past my nose.

The Kestrel

There were many Northern Mockingbirds hanging around. Once I saw 4 mockingbirds all perched in the same small tree! That was one hell of a crowded plant!

A Northern Mockingbird

Walking down the road a little way we came across a sparrow flock. In it I found a couple of Savannah and Swamp Sparrows, along with a bunch of Song Sparrows. Flitting about with the flock was a pair of "Yellow" Palm Warblers. I really love Palm Warblers, they're very cooperative and always give me great looks and photos.

A Palm Warbler

Here is the list from Bold Point:
Red-tailed Hawks 4
American Robins 3
Northern Mockingbirds 11
Herring Gulls X
Ring-billed Gulls 31
Great Black-backed Gulls 11
Song Sparrows 20
Mourning Doves 2
Peregrine Falcon 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Rock Pigeon 12
White-throated Sparrows 2
Black-capped Chickadees 2
Yellow-rumped Warblers 12
Field Sparrows 6
Great Blue Heron 1
Double-crested Cormorants 6
Bonaparte's Gulls 3
Mute Swans 6
American Crows 4
Hermit Thrush 1
Mallards 3
Northern Cardinal 1
Cedar Waxwings 2
House Finches 7
American Kestrel 1
Blue Jays 2
Swamp Sparrows 3
"Yellow" Palm Warblers 2
and Savannah Sparrows 3.
Here is a map of Bold Point showing the route I took and what I usually look for in any season.

It has been a great few days for birding. I'm still working on the book reviews, I hope to post the next one in the next few days. Happy Halloween everyone!

Good Job to anyone that ID'd the Black-and-White Warbler in the last photo quiz.
Here's your next quiz!
This photo was taken at Bold Point on the 30th of October.
Good Luck!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Review #6

#6 Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America


Born 1908 Roger Tory Peterson lived his life as a super birder and he created his first guide in 1934. A Field Guide to the Birds (east of the Rockies) was an instant success; the 2,000 copies sold out in the first 2 weeks. The reason his guide was so popular was probably due to the fact that no one had ever created anything like what Roger created. It was the worlds first field guide!!! That guide was the foundation of all modern field guides. Peterson died in 1987 but his legacy and his books live on.

The newest edition to his classic guide was printed in 2008, of course Peterson didn't update his guide personally he being long past. No, this guide was updated by a number of famed birders, adding new range maps, 40 new paintings by Michael DiGiorgio, new text and digitally updated paintings by Peterson. As well as making new editions to the eastern and western guides they came out with a new one to all the birds of North America, this is the one I have.

The Great
This guide is arranged in the classic order with paintings on right, text and some extremely detailed maps on the left. One of my favorite things about this guide are the status's which are given next to the English and scientific names above the body of the text blocks. The status tells how common each species is in North America, generally it just says "Fairly common" or "Uncommon" etc, etc.

Next to the status is a big "M" and then a number. The "M" stands for map and the number matches up to the number on the map. Now you may be wondering why the maps would need a number if they were right next to the text. The answer is simple, there are in fact two maps for each species (excluding vagrants of course). One map I have already noted as being next to the text (in the front of the book), the other maps are placed in the back. Along with being much larger these maps also have notes on the likelyhood of vagrancy to other parts of the country and notes on migration among other range related things. These pages are nicely arranged and very educational to flip through.

There are quite a few flight pages and these pages, similar to the Nat Geo guide, show the birds on the right hand page and on the left descriptions of their different wing plumages.

Sizes of the birds are given under the name. Descriptions are very informative discussing habitat, voice (discounting Boobies, Tropicbirds, Cormorants and pelagic species which we are all unlikely to hear) and similar species. This guide contains many rarities and vagrants as well as introduced species.

Before every family of birds are a few lines discribing the family. Here is what is said about the corvids: "Large perching birds with strong, longish bill, nostrils covered by forward-pointing bristles. Crows and ravens are very large and black. Jays are often colorful (usually blue). Magpies are black and white, with long tail. Sexes alike. Most immatures resemble adults. FOOD: Almost anything edible. RANGE: Worldwide except s. S. America, some islands, Antarctica" Yes, I know isn't a masterpiece, but it is interesting and useful. I would never have been able to tell you that corvids don't live in southern South America before reading that.

This guide has a very nice illustrated introduction on IDing birds, something that would be very useful for any beginning birder. Before the introduction on page number one is a "ONE PAGE INDEX" listing bird families in alphabetical order from Albatrosses to Yellowthroats.

In the back of the book, squeezed tightly between the range maps and the index, is a "Life List" that follows the ABA checklist. This list contains more species than the book (not surprisingly). The book does not mention Xantus's Hummingbird due to its rareness in the ABA area but the Life List lists this bird and many other species which the book lacks.

The very last few pages are taken up with one of my favorite sections of the whole book. These pages are filled with silhouettes. There are three separate spreads. One spread depicts a black and white shore filled with water loving species, the second shows a mixed flock of birds in flight (on this spread 26 species are shown flying) and on the last spread is a colorless painting of a country roadside showing 32 different species. These are fun pages to quiz yourself on by covering up the list of species shown on the page.

The OK
The gulls are separated into two sections; adults and immatures, this may require you to flip around a bit more, before finding the bird you are looking for.

I can't say I am a huge fan of the paintings, I have seen nicer. These paintings, while not being completely stunning (in general), are very useful for tough IDs. All the field marks are pointed out with black arrows, and many of the birds are shown in flight. Generally species are shown in a few different plumages.

The bottom edge of each page is colored in order to help the reader find the birds with more speed. For example all the shorebirds are color tabbed olive green. To me this doesn't seem like it would be all that useful.

The Awful
My only real problem with this guide is that its very big. It would be hard to carry a book like this out into the field with you unless you want bring a backpack.

This guide I would recommend to any birder though I think it would be better for a beginning birder to start out with a smaller guide.

Good job to anyone who ID the Eastern Phoebe in the last quiz.
Heres your next photo quiz!

This photo was taken in Barrington, RI on the 30th of September.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Review #7

#6 Shorebirds an Identification Guide by Peter Hayman, John Marchant and Tony Prater
This superb guide is filled with hundreds and hundreds (and more hundreds; in all there are over 1,600 paintings) of amazing paintings showing birds in every pose imaginable.

The guide starts off with a short and simple species table of contents giving page numbers to all 214 species illustrated in the guide. It makes it much more simple to find a bird than with the index in the back.

Flipping forward a few more pages you come to a foreword by the great master himself, Roger Tory Peterson!

The introduction is a detailed set of pages discussing the different shorebird families, shorebird topography and a page on measuring dead birds. Plus there is a page or two on studying and IDing birds.

You continue turning the pages and leaving behind the sketches of dead shorebirds being measured you come across the first paintings. This plate shows in detail African, Madagascar and Lesser Jacanas, big footed, colorful shorebirds inhabiting the wetlands of Africa. Each bird is shown in adult and juvenile plumages as well as in flight. No other guide I have found shows birds in so many positions and plumages! This is an incredibly useful resource.

These paintings are placed, as in most guides, on the right hand page (if, as I am, you're looking at the book the right way up). Turning your attention to the opposite page you will find English and scientific names and below these are the species descriptions of different plumages.

Each painting of a bird, instead of being given a name is instead given a number which matches up to the number placed next to the birds name in the text. Next to each number is a letter which matches up to a plumage description. And yes this is almost as confusing as it sounds! But it does help in species comparisons. Let me note that the species are not always numbered in order. Ruddy Turnstones are #154, Black Turnstones are #155 and, strangely, Surfbirds are #186 and they are all grouped on the same page.

The range maps are detailed affairs as even birds with the smallest of ranges have there own maps. I do wish though that they would point out more clearly where the birds with such small ranges dwell - it took me ages to find the little yellow dot on an island in the Chatham archipelago which is the home of the endangered Shore Plover. Its dot was practically invisible in my 1986 edition. This plover now lives on a few more islands in the archipelago as its range has recently grown.

These identification pages continue on for another 275 pages all filled with succulent range maps and delicious close ups of feathers, tails and bills. This is a great section and one which I cannot stop thumbing through.

After the identification section comes the more detailed species descriptions. They discuss in great detail EVERYTHING you would possibly need too know to identify any of the 214 species illustrated in guide (except for breeding habits). Also to be found in this section are a bunch of black and white paintings (generally close ups and silhouettes) of many of the species.

Just before the index is the last great work of this guide. A set of charts discussing in the greatest of detail the hardest shorebird IDs (such as the American Dowitchers). For example: in the dowitcher ID chart they mention, voice, shape, plumages which are visible all year long, breeding plumage, non-breeding plumage and juvenile plumage. These pages are incredibly, amazingly, marvelously useful.

Don't worry I am not going to delve into the arrangement of the index that, my readers, is for the next post......I was just kidding about the index description being in the post next in line.

This guide I would recommend to anyone interested in shorebirds as I am.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Review #8

#8 Illustrated Guide to the Birds of Southern Africa by Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey and Warwick Tarboton, illustrators: Peter Hayman and Norman Arlott


Seeing that this guide is to Southern Africa I won't be able to find many if any avian errors with it and have not had the opportunity to have used it in the field!

The Good
This is a guide arranged in the classic format with stunning paintings on the right hand page which seemed to be done in gouache and pencil though I am not sure and range maps and detailed descriptions on the left. Its covers hold over 900 bird species and more than 4,000 paintings which means that each species has a whole hoard of illustrations.

One of the greatest feats of this guide is the flight pages, similar in style to that of the Nat Geos guide. The only difference which separates it from the Nat Geos flight pages is the fact that not all the birds shown on these pages are flying. Instead they show many pictures of perched birds as well as those in flight. These pages are in fact more closely compared to a regular field guide spread with no text (other than to give the names of the birds). The texts to the species shown on these flight pages are displayed on separate pages with some more paintings of the same birds. This (though it may sound confusing the way I put it) appears to be very, very useful in the field (if you can carry it out there - see "the bad").

The descriptions are very good. Every single species description gives size, English and scientific names, calls, status, habitats and a description of each bird species field marks. These summaries are surely very useful, I would love to own a North American guide that contained this much information in each species rundown! Most, if not all guides to North American birds do not give half as many calls as these authors do.

I really like that this guide has range maps even for the vagrants! These vagrant maps point out with a dot where ever a bird of this species has been recorded. I have always wished that we North American birders had a guide with this extremely useful trait.

Another nice feature of this book is the introduction which is the same style as the Nat Geos guide. The introduction does not cover as much as the Nat Geos but it has 13 pages worth of family descriptions, which are short but helpful. The introduction discusses EVERYTHING from to the Bastard Wings wing to the Flufftails toes.

The Bad
This book is a chunky, hardcover volume measuring eight inches in length and 6 across. It contains 426 pages and weighs about two pounds. It's a very big guide and not one that would fit easily in an average sized pocket. Its binding also doesn't seem to be very strong as a third of the pages in my volume have fallen out, luckily they fell out while still glued to each other and they now exist as a large chunk.

Not all the paintings are fabulous with the worst being in the Owl and Tern sections.

The Ugly
This guides range maps do not have colors and are all a bland gray, meaning that the time of residents in the area is not instantly knowable. It would much more agreeable with me at least if its range maps were colored.

My final opinion is that this would be an essential companion on any trip to Southern Africa.

I believe that I forgot to mention in the last review that Nat Geo has just come out with a 6th edition which has been massively revised with a swarm of species which have only recently been split from other similar species. Plus it has had the biggest warbler mix-around that you are ever gonna see! I NEED it!!!

Good job to anyone who identified the preening Dunlin in the last photo quiz picture.

Here is your next quiz!
This photo was taken in Petersham, Massachusetts on the nineteenth of September two thousand and eleven.
May the force be with you:)

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Review #9

#9. National Geographic "Field Guide to the Birds of North America" 5th edition ("Nat Geo")


The Ups
This guide is a real classic field guide. Everybody has got it. It currently has more species than any other North American guide and it contains all birds species recorded North of Mexico before 2006 (almost all at least, it lacks such common birds as Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Red-bellied Woodpecker and Hooded Warbler!). It is arranged in the classic guide format with text and range maps on the left and paintings on the right (I was just kidding when I said that they were lacking Hooded Warbler, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron and Red-bellied Woodpecker!). The only unusual thing that stands out on this guide is the clever addition of a set of thumb tabs, making much quicker to flip to one of the seven large most challenging families. Surprisingly the finch family has its very own thumb tab. I have never thought of the finch family as either particularly large or particularly hard.

Every species has a description and a detailed range map. Descriptions generally mention both the songs and/or calls especially in the songbird section. Both the English and Scientific names are given along with exact measurements of their length, given in both inches and centimeters (plus before the Alcid family the wing lengths are often given). Before every family is a short family introduction mentioning the number of birds in the family and the number of species in North America. In the back of the book are placed vagrants (recorded less than three times in America, every species has a detailed description and an illustration) and extinct species. One of the greatest works of this guide is the intro, which consists of thirteen pages mentioning every thing from subspecies to lateral crown stripes.

Each species is illustrated in full color paintings showing almost showing (when necessary) males, females, young birds and when existing, subspecies! Birds are shown perched and very often in flight. The greatest all round work of this guide though is the flight pages which can show as many as thirty birds per spread. In total there are fourteen of these pages, four for shorebirds as well as ducks and female hawks and then there two pages for immature gulls. These are amazingly useful for IDing birds in flight. Although Peterson thought up this clever idea first Nat Geo has brought it to a whole other level by getting rid of the text and replacing them with more paintings for the maximum comparisons. There are some stunning illustrations in this guide which was illustrated by a ton of well known artists.

The Downs
Because of the aforementioned mass of contributing artists there is a sharp contrast in art styles which I find slightly annoying and very distracting. I personally prefer when all the art is of the same quality and style, which in this guide it is neither. Page 391, for example, a lovely warbler filled page contrasts with some less stunning illustrations of warblers on page 389. I don't mean to offend anyones skill and these illustrations are WAY beyond my unimpressive artistic skills.

The only other problem I have with this book is the binding which seems to be quite weak. My back cover has completely fallen off and the front cover is about to go.

Put all the stuff mentioned above together and you come out with a great book and one that I would recommend to anyone.

Sorry I forgot to add a photo quiz to the last post. The answer to the last quiz is a male BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER.

Here is your next quiz!
This photo was taken at RISD Beach on the fourth of October, 2011. Good Luck!

Friday, October 7, 2011

Review #10

I have been wanting to do a post recently but have had nothing all that exciting to right about. Finally I found something to write about; a in depth review of my top ten favorite bird guides. The top ten of the 56 guides that my family has gathered (mainly by by me - as you can see I am obsessed with bird guides). I am including the international bird guides as well in this review.

I will try to do one review a day running from my least favorite of the ten best to the "Superguide" - the most amazing of them all.. Here is my first attempt at reviewing a book.

#10. All the Birds of North America American Bird Conservancy's Field Guide, published by Harper Collins, copyright 1997.


This field guide covers all the birds on this side of the Mexican border.

The Highlights
This guide is an amazingly well illustrated book. Each plate has at least three bird species most of which are also shown in flight. The page is rarely without a background illustration depicting the birds natural habitat, though this can be slightly distracting, its very useful. On a few pages they even tell you what the background painting portrays for example, under the bluebird plate it says "Western Bluebird family feeding in the California foothills".

Often other similar species (not described in the text) are put on the plate for comparison.

Birds are arranged in chapters by bill shape, size, habits and habitats. Each chapter has an overview of the family or families discussed within the chapter. Oddly you come across the 6 page introduction stuck in between pages 62 and 63. It is not placed in the front as in most normal books

Each page contains an illustration above and a description below that discusses the birds on the page and below that a more detailed description of each species. Next to every description is a range map showing the time of year that they occur in each area.

It includes a photographic guide to the extinct species currently not residing as living creatures in the USA or any other part of the world for that matter. Of course the photos are of stuffed birds arranged into cool posses.

In the back of the guide you will find a section for Alaskan birds and rarities. Here the paintings are smaller and not as nice. The birds in this section lack range maps and have very small descriptions. Each bird in this field guide has both common and scientific names and a size measured in inches.

The guide is shaped to fit perfectly in a back pocket making it easy to carry in and out of the field. It is half an inch narrower than Sibley's guide. I wish every book was shaped this way.

The Lowlights
The arrangement of species in this book can be quite confusing to use in the field,at least thats what I think. In the songbird section hey have arranged them by the shape of the bills so the vireos are next to warblers instead of being next to the corvids and shrikes. But then again I am used to using taxonomically arranged guides.

The range maps don't use the use the generally accepted colors for the different seasons. My only other problem with this book are the small illustrations of the rarities and the almost complete lack of text for these scarce, rare and vagrant species.

It is not completely up to date on its taxonomy and it is lacking the very rarest of birds such as Western Reef Heron, Yellow Bittern and Lesser Frigatebird.

I think I have summed it up as best I can. It is a very nice guide and one which is sure to come in handy.

The last photo quiz which I posted was unfair-I accidentally miscounted the species even though I had ID them all. Congratulations to anyone who got it right, despite the fact that the hint that was given was incorrect. I have coded the answers and placed them in the picture to show where each species is. Here are the meanings of the codes: WRSA=White-rumped Sandpiper, LEYE=Lesser Yellowlegs, KILL=Killdeer, SESA+Semipalmated Sandpiper and LESA=Least Sandpiper.

Here is your next quiz!
May/1/2010 at Swan Point Cemetery
Good luck!