This morning's Duluth Audubon bird hike was a lot of fun! We had both American Golden Plovers and Black-bellied Plovers on the beach of Park Point this morning, with American Black Ducks, Palm Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, fly-over American Pipits and more on the bay-side of Park Point. While scanning through the small group of American Golden Plovers, we came across a golden-orange faced, smaller-billed, and yellow-speckled (on the back) plover. We left this bird as unidentified in the field, and based on abundance of the mid-sized plovers, would most likely be an American Golden-Plover. I am thrown off by some of the field marks. This first set of pictures is from this morning's walk along Park Point.
Here is that tricky plover from this morning - note the relatively short bill, soft-orange blotch near the front of the face, gold mottling throughout the backside. http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146446320 http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146446321 http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146446322 http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146446323 American Golden Plovers (in flight) http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146446312 Black-bellied Plovers (in flight) http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146446314 Fox Sparrow http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146446316 ------ from throughout this past week, until as far back as Jaegerfest Sabine's Gull (Jaegerfest) http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146326397 http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146326398 Franklin's Gull (Jaegerfest) http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146326388 Gulls Galore (Jaegerfest) http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146326399 Sanderlings with an American Golden Plover http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146326504 http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146326502 Least Flycatcher http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/146326506 Good birding. Thanks for any feedback you can provide with the plover ID! Erik Bruhnke Duluth, MN -- *NATURALLY AVIAN* - Birding Tours and Bird Photography [email protected] (e-mail) www.naturallyavian.com (birding tours) www.pbase.com/birdfedr (photos) www.facebook.com/NaturallyAvian (facebook) ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
