We spent a couple of hours today looking at this bird from afar and
occasionally fairly close. We are not sure that this bird will be able to
be assigned to anything other than ibis species. Hint that the bird is
fairly skittish. It's best to stay in the car and use a window mount scope
for closest looks.
This bird is very similar to a bird I photographed on July 23, 1994 (see The
Loon Volume 67-Number 3, Fall, 1995) with a few small changes from being a
few months older. The bird today had a much brighter bill. Alternately
seeming to be more pink, orangish or fleshy depending on the direction and
distance we were observing the bird. In other words much less plain pale
bone color, but still not distinct, but closer to what Sibley shows for
Glossy Ibis.
The eye is still very plain brown with no hint of pink and the facial skin
appears to be pale gray. There is no hint of the very white facial outline
seen on adult glossies while there does seem to be a very very pale line of
white along the boundary of the facial skin and the forehead feathers like
Sibley shows on adult non breeding White-faced Ibis.
Sibley shows the belly on the white-faced being paler than the rest of the
underparts. We could not discern any difference on the underside of this
bird.
So some things seem to point toward Glossy and some toward White-faced Ibis,
but none seem to us to be the answer. One thing we do believe. This is by
far the latest date recorded with us not knowing of any records after
October 10th and most late dates are in very early October or September. A
bird this late seems to us to increase the odds of the species to 50% either
way, instead of the very expected White-faced Ibis.
Hopefully others will get better looks and tell us all what they think the
species is!!!!!!
On Lake Osakis on the way home there was a Black Scoter in the southeast
corner loosely associating with the flock of some 100 divers of mixed
species. Seven trumpeters were a little ways north of this location on the
east shore. No other uncommon species were noted.
Dennis and Barbara Martin
Shorewood, MN
[email protected]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan & Sandy Thimgan" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 4:59 PM
Subject: [mou-net] Ibis/Otter Tail Co
Thanks to a tip from Steve Millard, we observed an Ibis species at 3:00
this afternoon (11/20) south of the town of Fergus Falls in Western
Township (in the extreme southwest corner of the county).
Even with scopes, the bird was simply too distant for us to determine
anything about it except its Ibis-ness. We could in no way discern eye
color. Steve, on the other hand, has been able to observe the bird from
close quarters on a couple of occasions this week. Although the default
species would be White-faced Ibis, he believes the possibility of it
being a Glossy Ibis at least needs to be seriously considered. He
predicts (with the nice weather) that the bird may stick around through
the weekend.
The location: go south-southwest of Fergus Falls on Hwy 15 until it
crosses CR 112 (or 140th Street); turn right and go west for one mile,
then turn left (south) on 135th Ave. On the right (west) side of the road
there is appropriate habitat the next quarter mile or so. At this
location, we also saws swans, several duck species, and a vocal Wilson's
Snipe.
Bird on!
Dan & Sandy
--
Thimgans
Battle Lake MN
Otter Tail County
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