BIRDING TOURS WORLDWIDE

including:

ß,•• ISLAND,BAYOFFUNDY NOVA SCOTIA &BRIER "'' August15-22 with Doug McRae & Broad-billed ß . MeganEdwards Seabirds,shorebirds, migrants &whalesß

'tt SOUTHAFRICA October 9-31 with Richard Webster Sand, iper Birdinghighlights from Cape Town to the DrakensbergandNatal. a inc, Bay, Ne' York •' NEWGUINEA & AUSTRALIA Broad-billedSandpiper (Limi½ola fal½ieellus) at JamaicaBay Wildlife Refuge, Gateway October 13-31 NationalRecreation Area, Qaeens• New ¾ork• in late August1998. Fieldcharacters include with Chris Benesh the darkmantle with pale streaks•dark crown and aaricalarswith a prominentpale super- . Richand diverse sampler ofthe best ciliam•Iong• rather straight bill kinkeddownward at the tip• andsparsely streaked baffy •: birdingofthese two countries. breast.The breastpattern and fresh, baff-fringedwing covertsindicate juvenal plumage. BELIZE:CHAN CHICH & Photograph/ArthurMorris/Birds as Art HIDDENVALLEY WlLUAM L. BENNER * TwoThanksgiving tours: Editor'sNote: Portions of thisaccount, including a black-and-whiteversion of oneof thephoto- NvemberwithChris 19'27Benesh &Robin Roche graphs,were published in The Kingbird,Vol. 48, No. 3, pp.182-185. withNovemberMegan 21-29Edwards FINDING THE BIRD Atwogreat fabulous crosssites.section of Belize at nsidethe of morning the freshwater ofThursday, East Pond Augustat Jamaica27,1998, Bay I was Wildlife making Refuge, mywayBroad north Channel, alongtheQueens east Callforourfree itineraries •catalog of ., Co.,NY, lookingat shorebirds.The skywas overcast, but the lightwas excellent. I was bird- 100departures worldwideß ing alone,using my usual10x50 binoculars,with no telescope.Mixed-species flocks of 800-728-4953 shorebirdswere feeding along the edges of thepond. High tide would be at 12:56PM, and the severalhours before high tide are usually the best shorebirding at JamaicaBay, since the ris- gukles,o. ingwater in the Bayforces the birds into thepond-edge habitats. This seemed to be the case 9433 BEE CAVE ROAD, thismorning, as there were many birds along the shore. BUILDING 1, SUITE 150, At the northeastcorner of the EastPond, a trail leadsnorth awayfrom the pond and AUSTIN,TX 78733 -•'*- throughthe Phragmites.As I approachedthis final corner, I scannedall of the shorebirdsin FAX 512-263-O1 17 that cove.Virtually all werestints, a mixtureof Semipalmated(Calidris semipalmatus) and http://www.fieldguides.com ' Leastsandpipers (C. minutilla).Also present were a few LesserYellowlegs (Tringaflavipes). One somewhatlarger shorebird stood out; throughthe binoculars,it becamea Pectoral Sandpiper(C. melanotos),of whichI hadseen several already that morning. I lookedat a smallershorebird next to the Pectoral.Immediately, I knew I waslooking at somethingunusual. It wasdearly smaller than the Pectoral, but slightly larger than a nearby juvenileLeast. My firstdistinct impression, however, was that it wasvery dark, and that it showeda tremendousamount of contrast--thatis, dark feathers dorsally with almostwhite edges,giving a black-and-white"streaked" look. My next impressionwas of the bill, whichwas long, black, straight, and had a distinct downwardkink at thevery tip. It waslonger than any bill of anystint I hadever seen. Then, I quicklynoted the head--dark overall, with a blackishline through the eye, dark lores and a darkforehead, and a doublesupercilium. When this lastmark registered,1 knew thiswas an outstandingbird. But, thoughI had

* 113 ShoreRoad, Glen Cove, New York 11542

VOLUME52 (1998), ISSUE4 513 my copyof Shorebirdsby PeterHayman, John Marchant, and Tony therewere no otherpeople visible. I spoketo a birderI sawafter the Praterin my backpack,I forcedmyself to watchthe bird aslong as I bird flushed, David Klauber, who said that he had seen me leave the couldand to try to inchcloser for betterlooks. When I first spotted otherside, and that while I wascircling around a Peregrinehad come the bird, I wasabout 30 metersfrom it. By slowlywalking obliquely alongand flushed everything. He promisedto keepa doseeye out for towardsthe bird and doserto the reededge, I wasable to getwithin the Broad-billed and continued southward. about 10to 15 meterswithout unduly alarming it. At leastonce dur- I exitedthe northwest corner again and walked very quickly south ingthis stalking, the bird, along with all of theother shorebirds in the downthe highwayso that 1 cotfidreport the bird to the peopleat the cove, flushed, wheeled, circled over the water, and settled back down refugeheadquarters, as well asto the rare-bird-alertpeople, which I in the samespot and beganfeeding again. Peregrine Falcons had did.Several other birders, including Jamaica Bay regulars A10tt and beenharassing the shorebirdsfor severaldays here on the EastPond, MildredPenzer, and I spentthe restof the afternoonand evening and all morningthe flockshad been restless. alongthe north edgesof the EastPond hoping to relocatethe bird. Eventuallythe bird flushedbut did not return,instead landing We were tinsuccessful. Numbers of shorebirds overall were much furtherwest along the north edgeof the pond,at the mouthof the lowerthan they had been earlier in theday, which is the usual pattern outlet stream. The view was now more distant, but the bird was still at the EastPond on a fallingtide. dearly dark, contrasty,and stripe-headed.At this point, I jotted The followingday, Friday, August 28, 1998,I arrivedat the Refuge downsome quick field notes (Benner 1998). in themorning, intending to spendthe entire da• if necessary,trying While I waswriting these notes, however, the bird flushedagain, to relocatethe Broad-billed.High tide wasabout 45 minuteslater alongwith the othernearby peep. I had beenable to followthe bird than the day before,perhaps 1:45 PM.Hurricane Bonnie was also in the air the previoustimes that it flushed,due mostly to its overall passing,just to our south,and the outlyingdoud bandsintermit- darkness.I dearly saw both a definitewing stripe and a white-edged tentlytraveled from south to northover the refuge, though it did not darkrump and tail asit flew.This last time it flushed,however, I lost it in flight(it did not tendto staywith a flock,but wasa bit "off"from I scouredthe EastPond during the morning and early afternoon the wheelingsof any nearbyflock). Some of the shorebirdslanded but did not find the Broad-billedSandpiper. When I arrivedback at againin the area,others continued down the pond. When all had the Refugeheadquarters about 4 PM,I readin the log bookthat a landed,I wasunable to locatethe bird again.The entireperiod for birder,Don Davis,had reportedsighting the Broad-billedfrom the which I had been able to observe the bird amounted to less than five southend of theWest Pond, at about2 PM.I quicklydecided to walk minutes. alongthe WestPond to try to seethe bird aswell. I mademy wayto At thispoint, I lookedin my Shorebirdsbook and quicklyidenti- the southernend of the Pondand began scanning the shorebirds.I fied the bird as a Broad-billedSandpiper (Limicola falcindlus) in wasjoined shortly by two refugestaff members, Christopher Olijnyk eithermolting adult alternate plumage or in juvenalplumage. The and LennyLampel, but we wereunable to locatethe bird. bird apparentlydid not haveany of the rufousedges pictured in the The Refugestaff members drove on westand north aroundthe juvenal-plumagedbirds, and it alsohad a darkerhead and facethan WestPond, but I remainedin the vicinityof the southwestcorner, picturedfor a juvenile.But, it did not havethe darklystreaked breast scanningthe shorebirdsmingled in with the multitudeof 1oafmg of an adult in full breedingplumage, so I tentativelyidentified the ducks.I knewfrom past experience (since this is oftena goodspot to bird asa moltingadult. (This turnedout to be an error,I later dis- seeBaird's Sandpipers at thistime of year)that it is verypossible to covered,and my repeatingof thistentative identification of ageto the overlookbirds here. In thepast I havesuddenly discovered new birds hotlinesmay havehelped to add to the initial confusionregarding in flocksI wassure I hadlooked over several times already. And sud- the bird'sage.) denly,there it was--theBroad-billed Sandpiper, feeding in the foam During thisentire period, I wasalone. Several times I scannedin alongthe veryedge of the waterline.At first it wasworking its way all directionsalong the shorelines,hoping to seeanother birder, but eastwardalong the edge,but a few anxiousmoments of observation seemedto indicatethat it might remainin the area feedingfor a while.It wasalmost exactly 4:30 I quicklyturned and ran towardthe headquarters,hoping to catchsomeone before they all left for the day.I soonmet another birderwith a telescope,Patti Castle from Wiltshire,UK. He listened to my rapidtale and agreedto look for the bird in the cornerof the pond.I continuedonward, running and walking and running again, and foundone of the Refugestaff still at the headquartersbuilding. He called the others on the radio, and I ran back toward the bird, wherethey would meet me. When Christopherand Lenny arrived, l, andthey, and Patti,and KevinJones from Mineola,NY, and a couple of other birders whose names I never learned, found and watchedthe Broad-billedSandpiper at fairly dose range,in good to excellent light,for the next45 minutes.To addto our goodfortune, Paul had seenBroad-billed Sandpiper twice before in the UK and immediate- luvenile Broad-billedSandpiper with a juvenile Semipalmated ly agreedwith the identification.At this point,I tentativelyrevised Sandpiperat right, and a largersandpiper (perhaps White-rumped) my estimationof the bird'sage, thinking now that it wasmore likely facingaway at left, JamaicaBay Wildlife Refuge, Queens, a juvenile.The bird eventuallyflew off with a groupof shorebirds NewYork, late August1998. Notethe largesize relative southwestwardover the TerrapinTrail, but as eventsover the next to $emipalmatedSandpiper, proportionally short legs, long bill with a sharpdownward break at the tip, and hunched fewdays proved, it did not go far. posture.Photograph/Arthur Horris/Birds as Art The sandpiperwas relocatedby others the next morning,

514 FIELD NOTES BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER

Saturday,August 29th, on thewest side of theWest Pond, near where ly seemedto havea whitishline alongthe scapularson eachside it hadbeen last seen the eveningbefore. Fortunately, this location is whenseen from the back. When I firstsaw it onAugust 27, it remind- muchmore accessible than the East-Pondarea where it wasoriginal- ed me immediatelyof PechoraPipit (AnthusgustavO, which I had ly seen.The wordquickly spread, and dozensof birderswere able to just seenin May 1998.In flight,it revealeda dark rump with white seethe bird that day.It remainedhere along the WestPond for the sides,as well aswhite sides on the tail. Rufousedges were not evident nextseven days. It seemedto be remarkablyfaithful to one20-meter on any feathersat first glance.Later, prolonged observations by stretchof shoreline,and tendedto return to this spoteven when myself,and especiallyby otherswith betteroptics, revealed some repeatedlyflushed by huntingfalcons. The lastday or twoof itsresi- rufousedging on the tertials,as well asthe slightesttinge of rufous denceit beganto wandermore, occasionally moving to thesoutheast on somemantle, scapular, and covert feather edges. Most of thewing cornerof thepond, to thespot where it hadbeen first seen on August covertswere blackish with prominentpale buff fringes. 28. It finallydeparted with a coldfrontthe afternoonof September Underparts.The breastwas the onlywarmly-colored, buffi/area 4th,but not beforeit wasclosely observed by hundredsof birders. onthe bird. The breast was indistinctly or lightlystreaked with black- ish,overlaying a palebrownish-buff wash that wasmost noticeable DESCRIPTION just at the bendof the wing.This pale buffy color extended in a few Size and Shape.The bird was decidedlysmaller than a White- spotty,pale streaks along the flanksjust under the foldedwing. The rumped Sandpiper(Calidris fuscicollis) and closerto the sizeof a breastmarkings ended ventrally in an abruptsemicircle across the stint.More specifically,it was very slightly larger than Semipalmated lowerbreast. Below that the lower breast and belly were pure white, and LeastSandpipers when feedingadjacent to them,but approxi- exceptfor thosefew faint buffy spotsor streaksalong the upper matelythe samesize as the largestnearby Western Sandpipers (C. flanks. BareParts. The bill wasvery long, longer in proportionto the size Theseobservations suggested that the bird was relatively small for of the bird'shead than any other stint I haveever seen. The bill a Broad-billedSandpiper, which has been described as "almost over- seemedto be all blackwhen I firstsaw it. Laterobservations proved lappingwith the smallestDunlins (Calidris alpina)" (Hayman et al. that the uppermandible was black, but thelower mandible was black 1986). Total lengthmeasurements for Broad-billedSandpiper are onlyfor theouter two-thirds, while the basal third was brownish. The reportedas 16-18 cm.,while Dunlin are 16-22 cm.,White-rumped bill shapewas somewhat deep at basebut fairly thin overall,and Sandpiper15-18 cm.,and WesternSandpiper 14-17 cm. (del Hoyo straight,with a pronounceddownward droop at the tip. Seenfrom et al. 1996;Hayman et al. 1986).This Broad-billed also seemed to be abovethe bill was very broad-basedwith an abrupt narrowing relativelyshort-legged, as would be expected.Tarsus measurements towardsthe middle.The bird'slegs were almost the samebrownish for Broad-billedSandpiper are reported as 2.0-2.4 cm.,as compared coloras the base of thelower mandible, but with a greenish-graycast. to 2.2-3.0 cm.for Dunlin,2.3-2.6 cm.for White-rumpedSandpiper, Behavior.The bird tendedto feedmost often right at the water's and 2.0-2.5 cm. for WesternSandpiper (Hayman et al. 1986).The edge.Never did I personallyobserve it feedin waterdeep enough to smallsize indicated that thisbird wasmost likely a male. touchits belly feathers. Also, it neverventured up on to thedry beach The bird seemedto havea fairly shortneck and to havewings whileI observedit. It did not seemto associatewith anyother par- slighfiylonger than or equivalentto the tail. It sometimespresented ticularshorebird species or individuals,except in passing.In fact,it a fairly"dumpy" posture, with a slightlyhunched, almost snipe-like moreoften tended to haveaggressive encounters with othersimilar- appearance.This postureand attitude,coupled with its shortlegs, sizedshorebirds. It did seemto be slightlymore aggressive in defense may havecontributed to its tendencyto appearsmall when com- of its feedingterritory, particularly a smallwet mudflatarea on the paredwith othersimilar-sized shorebirds. water'sedge, perhaps 3 or 4 metersin length,located along its pre- Head.The hird'shead, overall, looked dark with whitestreaking, ferred stretch of shoreline. althoughthe chin and facebelow the eyewere light. The forehead The bird did not vocalizeduring any periodwhen I observedit. wasalmost blackish. It hada blackline throughthe eye,a boldoff- The bird was not banded,and the plumageappeared to be fresh, white supercilium,then blackishabove that, then a buffy thinner unworn, and in excellent condition. superciliumabove that, then a verydark browncrown. The douNe The fresh,unworn plumage, the very sparselystreaked, buffi/ superciliumwas easily visible. When the bird wasseen head-on, the breast,lack of darkstreaks along the flanks, the presenceof verynar- headlooked almost like thatof a litfie snipe,however lacking the cen- rowrufous fringing on the upperparts,and the broad buff edgingon tral crownstripe. Overall, the bird's head appeared fairly dark, which the covertsled me to concludethis bird was a juvenile. made the eyebrowstripes stand out. The bird almostlooked as if it hadblack lores, for example,unlike the pale forehead and face of, say, DISTRIBUTION AND STATUS a SemipalmatedSandpiper. All of this dark featheringas well asthe Two subspeciesof Limicolafalcinellus are recognized.The western brighter superciliafaded and blendedbehind the crown into an race,L. f. falcinellus,breeds in Scandinaviaand northwesternRussia evenlydark gray, finely streaked, hind neck. This individual had some and wintersin easternand southernAfrica through Arabia to west- bilateralvariation in its superciliumpattern. On the right side,the ern and southernIndia and Sri Lanka.The easternrace, L. f. sibirica, classicsplit supercilium was clearly visible. On the left, however,the breeds in eastern Russia and winters from northeast India and upper superciliumappeared smudged and indistinct.When closely Bangladeshthrough Southeast Asia and Indonesiato Australia.(del examined,this resolvedinto an additionalsplitting of this smaller, Hoyoet al. 1996;Cramp and Simmons1983). upper supercilluminto two at its posteriorend, which causedits The Broad-billedSandpiper is a bird of wet borealbogs during indistinctappearance. the breedingseason. It occurslocally in smallnumbers in widely lipperparts.This sandpiperwas dark overall.Each dorsal feather scattered,relatively inaccessible breeding sites. It oftennests on the seemedto be almostblack, but the featheredges on the manfie, top of a tussock(Hayman et al. 1986)in the wettestboggy areas of scapulars,and tertialswere very palebuff, almostwhite, giving the lowland or montanetundra, though often adjacentto swampy bird the look of a streakedblack-and-white-backed bird. It especial- meadowswithin birch or coniferousforest (Cramp and Simmons

VOLUHE52 (1998), ISSUE4 515 PRIOR NORTH AMERICAN REPORTS OF BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER Bothfalcinellus and sibiricaare known to breedonly in areasdis- tant from the easternUnited States--Scandanavia for faldnellus, and __ Location Date So.... centraland eastern Siberia for sibirica.The primaryEuropean migra- II AdakI.,Alaska 19August 1977 Da•vetal.Auk96:189-190 II tion stopsand winteringgrounds of theBroad-billed Sandpiper, pre- ShemyaI., Alaska 30August to GibsonCondor 83:65-77 fiSeptember1978 (min. 5) sumablyfalcinellus, are mainlyeast of a line drawn from the Baltic Shem[aI..Alaska 3September 1986 AmericanBirds41:131I countries south through Italy (Cramp and Simmons 1988). BuldirI.,Alaska 28August 1989 4mericanBirds44:142There are five records for NorthAmerica, including four records HartlenPt., Nova Scotia 9September 1990 McLaren&Maybank / of at leasteight individuals from the western Aleutians and one from Amer,canBirds46:4870j Nova Scotia(see table). All Alaskanbirds havebeen juveniles, and theseoccurred from 19 Augustto 6 September(ABA 1990). Fall 1983;Richards 1988). No morethan a few pairsnest in anyone bog Aleutianrecords suggest that sibiricaoccasionally strays eastward. (Richards 1988). The one other Western Atlantic coastal record occurred in Nova The Broad-billedSandpiper is a scarcebird, evenin thoseareas Scotiaon 9 September1990 and was of a bird in basicplumage, thus where it normally breeds,winters, or occursduring migration. presumablyadult, not juvenile(McLaren and Maybank1992). Worldwide,the bird is not endangered,with a total populationesti- Sibirica is more likely based on prevailingwind direction. matedat 13,000to 22,000pairs for the nominatefalcinellus and ca. Scandinavianbirds would have to travelagainst the prevailingwest- 16,000pairs for sibirica(del Hoyo et al. 1996).However, only in a few erlywinds, whereas those same winds cotfid help to pusha Siberian winteringor passageareas can it be consideredcommon. During the bird across Alaska and Canada to the northeastern United States. non-breedingseason, one site in Australiaholds approximately 6,000 Somehave suggested, when discussing other species, that thismakes individualsand anotherover 1,500; four siteson the Arabianpenin- vagrancyfrom Europewestward to North Americafairly rare. While sula hold 1,000 or more birds; and sevensites in SoutheastAsia hold thismay make a sibiricaindividual more likely, it doesnot provethis 100or moreindividuals. It is alsoreportedly"common" on the coast individual'sorigin. of Pakistanin thewinter (del Hoyoet al. 1996).In addition,there are Ponderingplumage characters does not giveclear answers either. a fewimportant staging areas during migration, notably an areahost- Sibirica is supposedto have a "lesswell defined" supercilium ing6,000 or moreindividuals in thesouthern Ukraine (dr Hoyoet al. (Haymanet al. 1988),but thisis difficult to assesson a lonebird. It is 1996).Yet in manyareas, and especiallyfor manyWestern European possiblethat sibiricaaverages brighter in spring(Hayman et al. 1988) birdersL. falcinellusremains elusive. and perhapsin fall plumagesthan doesfalcinellus. Given that this individualshowed very little mfous at all,falcinellus might thus seem ORIGIN more likely. E Leader(pers. comm."Re: Ageingof Broad-billed One of the most im- Sandpiper@ JamaicaBay NWR [sic]:'BIRDWG01 Internet discus- portant unanswered sion group),however, stated that both springadults and autumn questionsabout this juvenilesof sibiricain HongKong tend to fall into oneof two cate- Broad-billedSandpip- gories,either rufous (the well-described,typical form) or gray(i.e. er individual is its ori- not rufous),although N. Lethaby(pers. comm. "Re: Broad-billed gin. Any answers to Sandpiperin JamaicaBay age and molt?"BIRDWG01 Internetdis- this question,however, cussiongroup) notedthat sibiricajuveniles in Septemberin Korea aremostly speculation. wereextremely bright. This individual at JamaicaBay seemed to fall Captive origin is into the graycategory. It is not clearwhether falcinellus juveniles also extremelyunlikely, as I followthis dimorphic pattern; if theydo, this character is not helpful am not aware of any in separatingthe two. zoosor privatecollec- Pendingacceptance by the New YorkState Avian Records Com- tionsthat keepBroad- mittee, this record constitutes the first occurrence of Broad-billed billed Sandpipers,and Sandpiperin the Lower48, andthe sixthrecord for North America. the possibilityof any other human-assisted LITERATURE CITED transport seems re- AmericanBirding Association. 1990. ABA Checklist:Birds of the Contmental UnitedStates and Canada.4th Edition.American Birding Association, ½ sseaes: mote. The question, Warb• ColoradoSprings. then, is which of the Benner,W. 1998.Broad-billed Sandpiper: First record for Lower48 States. Geme•Heron... two racesis mostlikely Kingbird48:182-185. to showup on theeast- Cramp,S., and K.E.L Simmons,eds. 1983. The Birdsof the Western •pri110-31: spectacular ern coast of North Palearctic,Vol. IlL Oxford UniversityPress, Oxford. waterfowlpassage delHoyo, J., A. Efliott,and 1. Sargatal, eds. 1996. Haadbook of theBirds of the America. While some World.Vol. 3. LynxEditions, Barcelona. IMay 10-31: residentsongbirds & non-breeders remain Hayman,P., J. Marchant, and T. Prater.1986. Shorebirds: An Identification neo-tropicalmigrants in the winteringrange Guideto theWaders of theWorld. Houghton Mifflin Company,Boston. Guided Tours, Green Mountain Audubon McLaren,I.A., andB. Maybank.1992. Apparent Broad-billed Sandpiper in all year (Haymanet al. Nova Scotia. American Birds 46:48-50. Naturalist,Bird BandingStation. 1986), this bird was Richards,A. 1988.Shorebirds: A Complete Guide to TheirBehavior and Midweek & Weekend Packages judgedto havebeen a Migration.Gallery Books, New York. qtistoric orth qtero qtouse juvenile.Therefore, it qnn and q•gstauranton 'LakeChamplain must have come from Mobil •,•,•, AAA +++ one of the breeding 1-888•525•$644 ß www. northherohouse. com locales.

516 FIELD NOTES