Saturday, October 3, 2015

Eurasian Dotterel in Bruce County, ON.

I came upon this interesting little plover in Bruce County this morning. It was somewhat smaller and more pot-bellied than nearby Black-bellied Plovers. Notable were: pale supercilia converging at the back of the neck, yellow-green legs, pale ring on breast and buffy underparts. All seem to fit for Eurasian Dotterel, a rarity in North America. My ID is very tentative. I welcome other opinions.

[Edit: Okay, everything seems to check out. Thanks Alan Wormington and Mike Burrell for confirming the ID - I'm a stranger to Eurasian shorebirds.]

I've been having some difficulty uploading images to Flickr and eBird so I thought I'd share some photos here.

The bird was feeding on a mudflat on Lake Huron in the community of Oliphant, at the T-intersection of Spry Lake Road and Shoreline Road Ave., waypoint 44.74937, -81.27946.

Oliphant is about 13 km west of Wiarton. Nearby were Greater Yellowlegs, an Hudsonian Godwit, Black-bellied Plovers, Dunlin and White-rumped Sandpipers.

What do you think?





Here are a few more pics from the morning.

Eurasian Dotterel and Dunlin.
Hudsonian Godwit
Peeps! White-rumped (2) and a Western?
Western Sandpiper?

10 comments:

  1. No doubt. Unbelievable rarity. Major congrats! Not even on the radar...

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  2. Absolutely no doubt! I am very jealous! I have never even seen it in Europe. I would come and see it but I am in the Darien in Panama at the moment. Congrats!

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  3. Congratulations. A mega rarity!

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  4. Dotterel find is amazing.
    Why isn't the Western another White-rumped instead? It seems long-winged in the photos. Juv WRSA have lots of red in the scaps like Westerns.

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    1. Amy, I think you're right. There's no reason to rule out WRSA. Thanks for checking in.

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  5. Congratulations! An incredible discovery. Great photos too! A first for Ontario and one of the few records for Canada.

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  6. Congratulations, Michael. What an incredible find!

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  7. Wow! Awesome bird! Congrats on the great find! Hopefully it finds its way to se mi! LOL

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