Paul Bystrak wrote:

...
> In addition, on the mud about 100 yds south of the first turnout, and 
> about 15 yards off the east side of the road, was a strange little 
> plover.  This bird was with 3 semipalmated sandpipers, and was very 
> slightly larger in body than them, but much, much longer in legs.  It 
> was a gray color, in contrast to the brown of the semi plovers, with 
> distinctly scaly wing coverts.  The legs are yellow, becoming greener 
> nearer the body.  The belly was black, with rufous side and back 
> fringes. The black of the central belly carried up both shoulders, so 
> that it looked like an apron from the front. Eyes and bill are jet 
> black, with the eyes set in a gray patch that was not even close to 
> being connected to the beak.  The forehead and throat are white, and 
> the white extended over the eyes, leaving a gray skullcap.  Below the 
> eyes, the white extended all the way around the back, forming a ring, 
> below which was the black of the apron.  There may be a black leading 
> edge on the wing - Marylee thought she saw that and the picture seems 
> to show it.  The bird dipped frequently, not unlike a waterthrush.  We 
> watched it for quite a while from close range, and then there was a 
> loud "eeek" sound from the nearby marsh grass and the birds flew away 
> and didn't return.  I got a poor image of it by putting my digital 
> camera to the objective of Marylee's Leupold Katmai binoculars.  I 
> don't have a way to post the image right now, but could email it to 
> anyone interested in seeing this.  We counted the semi plovers further 
> down the road several times, and saw nothing amongst them that even 
> remotely resembled the little guy.
>
> 3709 Devonshire Drive
> Salisbury, MD 21804
> 410-572-9950
> 443-783-1268 (cell)
> 
Paul was kind enough to send me a copy of the photograph, which is 
better than advertised and quite adequate for exploring possible 
identifications.  I have been through the plates of the first edition of 
Hayman et al, Shorebirds, looking for matches twice.  The first time it 
became obvious that there was no species in the plates that matched the 
underparts of the bird, even allowing for plausible intermediate 
plumages during molts.  The dark mark on the underparts is fringed by a 
narrow, somewhat lighter and more orange color.  The whole region seems 
to me to be consistent with a patch of oil on the underparts.  Paul 
comments in the EMail with the photo that the patch was sufficiently 
symmetric that he wanted to discount such stains, but faced with the 
absence of a natural alternative I am inclined to speculate that the 
bird landed somewhere in a floating patch of oil and took off quickly 
enough to prevent unsymmetric stains developing.

On my second pass through the plates I concentrated on the appearance of 
the head, back, and the back and sides of the neck.  There is a clear 
indication of a dark collar along the side of the neck, which extends as 
far as you can see around the back of the neck and disappears into the 
"stain" on the breast.  This collar eliminates all species but the 
"ringed" plovers like Semipalmated, Piping, Snowy, and relatives.  The 
bill is too small for Wilson's Plover, and the gray rather than brown 
back eliminates all others except for Piping and Snowy Plovers.  The 
back color also looks to me to be a bit light and have too little 
brownish cast for Wilson's Plover, but the bill handles that species 
anyway.  None of the exotic species fit at all well.

The yellow legs pick out Piping.  The collar seems a bit extensive as 
well for the bird to be a Snowy, but the stain and a reflective spot on 
the shoulder might be enhancing this impression a bit.  The bill is 
pointed toward the camera, but appears too thick and short for Snowy 
Plover.  Both species have a black bill in nonbreeding plumage.

In addition, of course, the Snowy Plover is rare even within its range 
and would be substantially out of place.  All told, I believe that the 
bird is a stained Piping Plover.  I will be interested in learning 
Paul's opinion after he has heard comments from a number of MDOsprey 
readers.

-- 
Maurice Barnhill 
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Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716