Re: [cobirds] Re: PURPLE SANDPIPER, CO

Hey, everybody.

Jack Bushong showed me the photos of the Summit County sandpiper, and it indeed appears to be a Purple Sandpiper. Amazing! Congratulations to Jack and Ryan on this brilliant discovery.

I'm wondering about something Brandon said. True, there have been other amazing CBC birds in Colorado birding history, but would the Purple Sandpiper (assuming it's within the Summit County count circle--that's not clear to me) be the first instance in which a state record was discovered on count day?

Joe mentioned previous Purple Sandpiper records for Kansas and Oklahoma. There's also one from Utah from early December. The Summit County bird fits nicely with the pattern of Purple Sandpipers well inland in late fall and early winter.

Again, kudos to Jack and Ryan on discovering documenting this mega-rarity--and under very trying conditions. Consider it an inspiration to all the rest of us to spend a few extra hours afield on this coming weekend's CBCs... :-)

(And a little birdie tells me they'll be doing the Boulder CBC in a couple days!)

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County

On Friday, December 16, 2016 at 6:51:11 PM UTC-7, Joe Roller wrote:

Jack,

Could you please post a description of what field marks could be seen on the sandpiper, a first CO record.

There is a winter record from Kansas and one from Oklahoma, so it's plausible. 

Was it an adult or juvenile?

And how were the similar Rock Sandpiper and Dunlin ruled out, please? I am not aware of any inland records of Rock Sandpiper.

It would  be cool to get that information while we await the photos, as it may help us decide whether to brave the winter blizzard

by going up there tomorrow or not.

And perhaps it will stay the night, as birds can stay put rather than migrate through a blizzard.

Many thanks for this exciting report.

Joe Roller, Denver

On Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 5:55 PM, Jack Bushong <jcbus...@bvsd.org> wrote:

Brandon,

I was not participating in the CBC, but rather coming back from a day of skiing and stopped to check for geese on the reservoir!

On Friday, December 16, 2016 at 5:17:43 PM UTC-7, Jack Bushong wrote:

Hi all,

My brother and I just saw a Purple Sandpiper on Dillion Reservoir, CO. The bird was foraging on the Blue River Arm of the Reservoir about 20 yds off of hwy 9 along a stretch of rocky shoreline/ice. It was dumping snow throughout the observation period and is supposed to continue to do so, making it unlikely for the bird to stay through the night. There is a pull off on hwy 9, less than 1/4 mile North of the Swan Mtn Road intersection that offers good views of this particular stretch of shoreline. I should be able to upload photos tomorrow night. 

Good Birding,

Jack Bushong, 

Louisville, CO

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+u...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cob...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/0856e5b1-fdf3-4892-a9cf-4870d1c52bc9%40googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/a3d02584-cd00-4102-b78e-90647ffbe96a%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.