SCIENCE again,although hundreds of birders searchedfor it over the next 30 hours. The followingdescription has beencompiled from noteswritten independentlyby the four observers TEREKSANDPIPER during or immediatelyafter the encounter. The 's bill was at least twiceas long as that ofa Wilson's INMASSACHUSETTS: 's,all dark,slender, and upturned.The upperpartswere seen asvery light gray, brownish, smoky- FIRSTRECORD FOR gray,or gray-brown;Moore noted thatthe bird was slightly darker than a winter-plumagedSanderling. It EASTERNNORTH was definitely lighter than the Wilson'sPhalaropes. Giriunas and Moore observedblack markings alongthe upper edge of thefolded AMERICA wings.Stempie noted a darkeyeline borderedby diffuse areas lighter than theface colon The underpartswere lightor white. The legs were orange- yellowor darkorange; Paine and Stempleremember that they looked almostred in somelight. Paine noted byDavid Stemple, tim Moore, thatthe legs were shortish, giving the Ida Giriunas,andMarsha Paine bird a dumpy look, and Moore thoughtthe headappeared small. Thebird was slightly smaller than the BETWEEN 3:00 AND 3:15 PM ON andthat in Californiain 1988 (Yeeet Wilson'sPhalaropes, although when June23, 1990,Stemple stopped at at 1988).No other birder was present. billlength was taken into account, it the Salt Pans observation area at the Stemplehastily scribbled descrip- mighthave been as long. At theini- north end of the Parker River tive notes about the bird and then tialobservation, Stemple saw barred National Wildlife Refuge,Plum droveto thesouth end of the pond to edgesto the tail as the bird walked. In Island,Newburyport, Massachu- try to relocateit. Within a fewmin- flightthe rump and tail weredark, setts.There, at the edge of thepond, utes,he flagged down Moore to tell andthe secondary feathers had obvi- from a distanceof about 40 feet, he himabout theTerek in the ouswhite trailing edges; these fea- observeda Terek Sandpiper (Xenus area. Soon thereafter,Giriunas and tureswere seen by Stemple when the ctnereus)through Zeiss 10x40 dialyt Painejoined them and helped locate birdflew from one end of the pond to binoculars.Nearby was a Wilson's the bird. It was found on the far side the other. Phalarope(Phalaropus tricolor). The of a narrowsoutherly extension of Thesky was overcast during obser- sandpiperwas moving around the mainpond in the companyof vation,but thelight was good. All activelyand soonbegan giving a threeWilson's , a dow- fourobservers are experienced bird- two-note, tewk-tewk call. Within a itcherand a few Killdeer( ersfamiliar with New England . minute or two it flew off toward the vocij•rus),all on themuddy edge of Giriunasand Stemple have both seen southend of thepond. Stemple rec- the waterabout 75 yardsfrom the TerekSandpipers before: Giriunas in ognized the bird as a Terek observers'position. The sandpiper Alaska and Kenya, Stemple in Sandpiperalmost immediately, a was activelymoving and flying . All observedfield marks, specieshe had seen several times in around. Moore, Giriunas, and Paine otherthan the tail barring, are char- Australiain January 1989. The iden- were able to observethe bird in their acteristicof TerekSandpiper. The nty of the bird did not, however, scopesas well as in Stemple'sQuestar combinationof featuresis diagnos- &minish his senseof disbelief,since telescope.After a fewminutes, all of tic.Barring on outertail feathers is a he could think of only one other the shorebirds flew off to the south. feature not described in accounts of record in the lower United States, The TerekSandpiper was not seen TerekSandpiper, although Singer

Volume45, Number 3 397 depictsa fully-barredtail in twobird Lit,r=lur, Cit• guides(Bruun 1979, and Robbins et BRUUN, B. 1979. TheLarousse al. 1983). Puzzledby this,Stempie Guideto Birdsof Britain and visitedthe Museum of Comparative Europe.Larousse and Co., Inc., Limited Zoologyat Harvardand examined New York. Edition the twenty-oneTerek Sandpiper HOUSTON, C.S. 1973. Northern specimensthere. All specimensare in GreatPlains Region. Am. Birds Wildbird alternateor juvenalplumage. While 27:75-78. allshowed barred uppertail coverts, ROBBINS, C.S., B. BRUUN, and

with widelyvarying degrees of con- H.S. ZIM. 1983.Birds of North Free Color BrochureAvailable America. Golden Press, New trast,and most showed some barring WATERMARK FINE ARTS York P.O.Box2732 ABM Kemebu• ME04046 onthe outer edges of thetwo central Telephone(20/)985-4421 ßFAX (20/)985-8603 rectrices,only four specimens (two TWEIT, B. and P.W. MATTOCKS, adult malesand two adult females), Jr. 1987. Northern Pacific the newest generation of binoculars... hadcontrasting barring on the outer Coast Region. Am. Birds webs of the outer rectrices. These 41:1478-1480. fouralso exhibited high contrast in YEE, D.G., S.F. BAILEY, uppertailcovert barring. From the A.D. BARRON, and R.A. ]._. ßCompletely waterproof ERICKSON. 1989. Middle ßRetractable eyecups factthat none of the juveniles showed • ßClose focusing with no anycontrast in tailbarring or upper- PacificCoast Region. Am. Birds 43:161-163. tail coverts,as well asfrom the date •ljJ•l IIi-•ljj ßplusLifetime 3 yearUSA no-faultwarranty and observedfeatures, we believethe ßpassportSoft case and protectionrainguard bird to have been an adult in breed- included For our cotolog and discount price list, ing .Cold frontsmoved -- 31 SchoolStreet, Hatfield, MA 01038 call (518) 664-2011 or write to: acrossCanada during the two weeks (Stempie);7 LedgewoodDrive, Farmington, CT 06032 (Moore); 83 SummerAvenue, BIRDING for the Bird Watcher...... beforeJune 23, which addsforce in PO Box 4405Aa, Reading,MA 01867 (Giriunas);203 Plain Halfmoon, NY 12065-4405 A Division of Sporting Optms Inc. thiscase to thecommon assumption Street,Norton. MA 02766 {Paine). of a Siberianorigin for palearctic shorebirdvagrants. The TerekSandpiper breeds from Eastern U.S.S.R. to and win- tersmainly in the areabounded by BIRDING Africa, SouthernAsia, and Australia. PLANETARIUMSTATION . TOURS It isan annualvisitor to Alaska,most- 10024U.S.A. ly to thewestern Aleutians. In North America outside Alaska, there are (21a•67•3 /.?• • NORTHRajasthan, As•m only two prior confirmedrecords, both on the Pacificcoast: July- •/ 3-27Janua• "thegreatest /? 25January-12 SRI•N• Februa• August,1987 in BritishColumbia operatorof // --, (Tweit and Mattocks 1987), and Asia THAILAND August-September,1988 in Cali- tourson • • . ,. . 18January-2 Februa• fornia(Yee etal. 1989).A thirdpub- // bpeclal isls PHILIPPINES Aflhur /n Luzon, Mindanao lishedrecord is of an "unverified, pos- _ III Write for sible sighting"in July 1972 at vrommer[/•. itinerariesPalawan,15 Februa•-15 Cebu, MarchBohol Churchill, Manitoba (Houston TORISHIMA 1973). This is the first record of 26 March-1 April TerekSandpiper in EasternNorth MALAYSIA 31 March-6 April Americato ourknowledge. Records Malaya/Borneo (Mt. Kinabalu) TIBET/WESTCHINA 23 July-15 August have been increasingin Britain Sichuan (Szechuan) INDONESIA 2 Giant Panda Reserves/ recently,where most records are from Java/Bali/Sumatra/Kalimantan Tibetan Grasslands Mayand June. Records from Alaska 24 July-16 August 7-31 May do not show clear evidence of SOUTH CHINA MANCHURIA increasedoccurrence there (Tobish, December/early January 28 May-27 June pers.comm.).

398- AmericanBirds, Fall 1991