Here are two more pictures from my visit to the northern tip of Sandy Hook, NJ. I have all three of these birds pegged as Semipalmated Sandpipers, but the differences among the three birds are quite striking. In the first picture, the left bird has a curved bill while the other two have straight bills. The bird in the second picture has dramatically more marking on its chest and its bill has a suggestion of orange near the base of the lower mandible -- this could be the same kind of stain as was on the photo I posted earlier. My question is: are they in fact all Semis, or are the differences Im seeing actually distinguishing marks for other species? I believe that the bird in the second picture was the same size as the other two. It was a few yards up the beach when I took the picture, but earlier Id seen them all together (with three Dunlins).
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 17:16:00 +0000
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