Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 22:43:17 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Joel Martin Subject: Gray-cheeked vs. Bicknell's? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This past Saturday, the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area in Howard County was in the midst of a thrush fallout. All along the river flood plain, Swainson's and Veerys were popping up like grasshoppers, posing nicely, singing and giving various call notes. It was like Thrushes 101. One of the popper-uppers was a definite Gray-cheeked type. Seen well twice, it seemed as large or larger than the many Swainson's. The giz was big and dumpy. It lacked the buffy eye ring and spectacles, having only a slightly pale gray area behind the eye. I can't vouch for the degree of yellow on the lower bill. There were no visible warm colors in the tail or wings. It was basically cold and gray and seemed far to the Gray-cheeked end of the spectrum, but it did not vocalize. I've seen a few Gray-cheeks, not a lot, in past years, but never had one sing. When it was split from Bicknell's I dutifully removed it from all of my lists, following the conventional wisdom that, off the breeding grounds, they simply cannot be separated except by voice, period. They're too similar in structure and plumage and there's too much overlap. But then there are people who will say that you can't separate winter Western/Semipalm Sandpipers by bill length, yet there are clearly extreme or "ultra-typical" individuals that can be positively ID'd. My question is, is there any point in the Bicknells/Gray-cheeked spectrum where a visual field ID can approach certainty? What would be a good strategy for identifying one locally? I'm sure there must be articles on this subject somewhere, if anyone can point me in the right direction. Thanks. Joel Martin Catonsville, MD jcdlmartin@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================