Towheeblog

Here’s a selection of Peter Thiemann’s pictures of shorebirds at Pt. St. George, Crescent City, CA:
Snowy Plover.
Black-bellied Plovers already molted out of the black.
Black Ohystercatcher on the rocks, as usual. This resident bird never molts out of his dark plumage. Not all oysterctacher species are as prone to rocky shorelines as this species along the Northern Pacific littoral. On the Atlantic–both American and European–coasts the pied oystercatchers there are often found on sandy beaches or even grassy pastureland. I’ve seen the European Oystercatcher running next to the runways at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam.
Pectoral Sandpiper.

BANDED SNOWY PLOVER UPDATE:
Hello Peter, I can tell you something about your plover but I don’t have the new list of birds banded this summer at Oregon yet. They are using Blue on the right for their youngsters, so I am sure of origin but now exact site. I think the left band is lime over white, did you get that impression?
Of interest, I have never received sighting of a snowy plover at Pt. St. George! Can you tell me how many others you saw, if any? Have you seen them there before?
Thanks lots for this, excellent info for us!
Frances Bidstrup
PRBO Conservation Science
3820 Cypress Drive, Suite 11, Petaluma, CA. 94924
Snowy Plover mail to:
5020 Sierra Springs Drive, Pollock Pines, CA. 95726

Hi Frances

Yes, banding on the Pt.St. George Snowy Plover is blue on right leg and lime over white on left leg. The Snowy on the photo was the only one there hanging out with two Semipalmated Plovers on the beach away from the point near the sand dunes. Have not seen a Snowy there before. A friend has told me about a small colony of Snowy Plovers at a beach near Bandon, OR about 125 miles to the north.

Peter