ID-FRONTIERS for November 1-10, 2001

Messages are displayed in the order they were received.  Subject  From  Date   Time   SB vs Vega   Steven Mlodinow    Thu, 1 Nov 2001   1:50pm   input wanted on Empid pics   Michael Retter    Thu, 1 Nov 2001   8:49pm   Flycatcher photograph from Ecuador - Empidonax?   David Cahlander    Thu, 1 Nov 2001   11:57pm   Re: Flycatcher photograph from Ecuador - Empidonax?   Christopher T. Tessa   Fri, 2 Nov 2001   9:31am   Re: SB vs Vega   =?iso-8859-1?q?Menot   Fri, 2 Nov 2001   11:50am   Re: western subspecies of Nashville Warbler in the east?   Matt Heindel    Fri, 2 Nov 2001   7:40pm   Re: SB vs Vega   Robert H. Lewis   Fri, 2 Nov 2001   7:42pm   Snipe Identification: more intriguing photos   Martin Reid    Mon, 5 Nov 2001   5:58am   Re: Snipe Identification: more intriguing photos   Norman D.van Swelm   Mon, 5 Nov 2001   2:40pm   Re: Snipe Identification   Peter Adriaens    Tue, 6 Nov 2001   2:35am   Re: Snipe Identification   Norman D.van Swelm   Tue, 6 Nov 2001   2:41pm   a snipe quiz   Martin Reid    Tue, 6 Nov 2001   6:53pm   E. Beach Tern Pictures. (fwd)   ian paulsen    Tue, 6 Nov 2001   9:44pm   Re: E. Beach Tern Pictures. (fwd)   Eric Carpenter    Tue, 6 Nov 2001   9:48pm   Possible Pacific Golden-Plover   Mark Stackhouse    Wed, 7 Nov 2001   9:24am   Late Pewee in Wisconsin   John Idzikowski    Wed, 7 Nov 2001   11:59am   Re: Late Pewee in Wisconsin   allen chartier    Wed, 7 Nov 2001   2:06pm   Re: Possible Pacific Golden-Plover   Julian Hough    Wed, 7 Nov 2001   4:38pm   Re: Possible Pacific Golden-Plover   Charlie Wright    Wed, 7 Nov 2001   4:57pm   Re: E. Beach Tern Pictures. (fwd)   Laurent Raty    Sat, 10 Nov 2001   2:09am

To use email addresses replace '(AT)' with '@'. This is done to confuse the spam 'bots.

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Subject: SB vs Vega
From: Steven Mlodinow <SGMlod(AT)AOL.COM>
Date: 1 Nov 2001 1:50pm

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Greetings All

Last weekend, Bill Tweit, Kevin Aanerud, Ryan Shaw and I had prolonged views
at a 1st winter gull in WA that had us scratching our heads. The bird
appeared to be either a 1st year vega or a 1st year Slaty-backed.

In flight, the bird appeared virtually identical to plate 499 in Grant, 2nd
ed. This bird is identified in Grant as a Slaty-backed. The question is, "Was
it correctly identified, or is this bird a Vega?"

Input would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Steven Mlodinow

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Subject: input wanted on Empid pics
From: Michael Retter <mretter(AT)HOTMAIL.COM>
Date: 1 Nov 2001 8:49pm

Hello all.

Your expert input is desired regarding the identification of the Empid shown
at http://www.iwu.edu/~mretter/empid.html

I would rather not reveal the tentative identification of this bird until I
get some unbiased input.

Many thanks.

----------

Michael L. P. Retter
Illinois Wesleyan University
Bloomington, McLean Co, IL
mretter(AT)iwu.edu
http://www.iwu.edu/~mretter
309.556.2149

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp


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Subject: Flycatcher photograph from Ecuador - Empidonax?
From: David Cahlander <David(AT)CAHLANDER.COM>
Date: 1 Nov 2001 11:57pm

I photographed a flycatcher in Ecuador.  I assumed that it is a Willow or Alder
Flycatcher.  Some parts of the pictures do not look
quite right for this identification.  The bird did not sing so there are no
hints about it from voice.  This location could be in
range for this bird, but according to Ridgely, it is the wrong time of year.

Can you come up with a better suggestion for the ID of this bird?

http://www.cahlander.com/flycatcher.htm

Thanks.
---
David Cahlander David(AT)Cahlander.com  651-415-3171


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Subject: Re: Flycatcher photograph from Ecuador -
         Empidonax?
From: "Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes" <cth4(AT)CORNELL.EDU>
Date: 2 Nov 2001 9:31am

 From Ken Rosenberg to ID Frontiers:

The bird looks to me like Elaenia parvirostris (small-billed
Elaenia), which is an austral migrant that would be expected in
amazonian Ecuador in June.  It's a bird that has been predicted to
occur in the U.S., but obviously can be easily overlooked.  Please
forward my comments to the ID-Frontiers List -- they may want to
confirm this with someone from LSU, or Bret Whitney.

KEN
****************************************
Ken Rosenberg
Partners In Flight, Northeast Regional Coordinator
Director, conservation program
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Rd,
Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 254-2412
kvr2(AT)cornell.edu
****************************************

>I photographed a flycatcher in Ecuador.  I assumed that it is a
>Willow or Alder Flycatcher.  Some parts of the pictures do not look
>quite right for this identification.  The bird did not sing so there
>are no hints about it from voice.  This location could be in
>range for this bird, but according to Ridgely, it is the wrong time of year.
>
>Can you come up with a better suggestion for the ID of this bird?
>
>http://www.cahlander.com/flycatcher.htm
>
>Thanks.
>---
>David Cahlander David(AT)Cahlander.com  651-415-3171

=============================================================
Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes, Research Aide II
Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850
(W1): (607) 254-2418, (W2): (607) 254-2408, (FAX): (607) 254-2415
PO Box 488, Etna, New York 13062-0488, (H): (607) 347-4279
E-mail: mailto:cth4(AT)cornell.edu


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Subject: Re: SB vs Vega
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Menotti=20Passarella?= <aster_men(AT)YAHOO.COM>
Date: 2 Nov 2001 11:50am

Hello!

I suggest you to visit the

Japanese Gull site
by Osao Ujihara & Michiaki Ujiara:

http://isweb15.infoseek.co.jp/animal/larus/gullidentifi_.htm

or go directly to:

Juvenile Vega Gull and Slaty-backed Gull:
http://203.174.72.113/vegae/vega011011/vega011011.html

Other links to be found at:

http://it.clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/birdinggulls

(under subscription)

Cheers

Menotti Passarella
Italy

 --- Steven Mlodinow <SGMlod(AT)AOL.COM> ha scritto: >
Greetings All
>
> Last weekend, Bill Tweit, Kevin Aanerud, Ryan Shaw
> and I had prolonged views
> at a 1st winter gull in WA that had us scratching
> our heads. The bird
> appeared to be either a 1st year vega or a 1st year
> Slaty-backed.
>
> In flight, the bird appeared virtually identical to
> plate 499 in Grant, 2nd
> ed. This bird is identified in Grant as a
> Slaty-backed. The question is, "Was
> it correctly identified, or is this bird a Vega?"
>
> Input would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Cheers
> Steven Mlodinow
>

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Subject: Re: western subspecies of Nashville Warbler in
         the east?
From: Matt Heindel <MTHEINDEL(AT)AOL.COM>
Date: 2 Nov 2001 7:40pm

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I feel less comfortable about the field ID of these races than I used to. The
Dunn and Garrett book does a great job of sorting through the differences. My
two bits of information are : reviewing specimen trays, primarily at the
Smithsonian, but also LSU and LA County, led me to feel the lines are tougher
to delineate than many think. Although averages are distinct, individuals can
vary enough to make all but extreme examples hard to ID in the field.
Second, and the real reason for my post, is tail pumping. I spent many hours
talking to Jon and Kimball about this and felt a reasonable level of comfort
when living in CA. My only caveat had been that a Western can go lengthy
periods without tail movement, but if you watch it feed, it would usually do
so vigorously. The past two springs however, I had multiple Nashvilles tail
pumping, including a few pretty consisent bobbers. I should note Nashville is
a very common migrant in this part of Texas and I see hundreds in spring. I
should also add there are no specimens of western Nashville from the region,
and I am leery of suggesting multiple occurences of an unprecented taxa.
It is certainly conceiveable that Western Nash do occur in central TX and
have either evaded collectors or specimens were not identified to race
correctly. But, until that is proven, it seems that the safer conclusion is
that easterns can pump their tails, and, like plumage, this might be an
indicator, but firm conclusions might best be left for later.

Matt Heindel
mtheindel(AT)aol.com
San Antonio TX

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Subject: Re: SB vs Vega
From: "Robert H. Lewis" <lewis(AT)BWAY.NET>
Date: 2 Nov 2001 7:42pm

on 11/1/01 3:50 PM, Steven Mlodinow at SGMlod(AT)AOL.COM wrote:

> Last weekend, Bill Tweit, Kevin Aanerud, Ryan Shaw and I had prolonged views
> at a 1st winter gull in WA that had us scratching our heads. The bird
> appeared to be either a 1st year vega or a 1st year Slaty-backed.
>
> In flight, the bird appeared virtually identical to plate 499 in Grant, 2nd
> ed. This bird is identified in Grant as a Slaty-backed. The question is, "Was
> it correctly identified, or is this bird a Vega?"
>
> Input would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Cheers
> Steven Mlodinow
>

  There are quite a few shots of Slaty-backeds on my web site, address
below.  Also a few Vegas, but not many.  Look at the pages for Allen
Chartier's photos from Japan and Peter Post's photos from Siberia.

  Hope this helps.

Bob Lewis
Sleepy Hollow NY
http://www.bway.net/~lewis/birds/gulls.html


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Subject: Snipe Identification: more intriguing photos
From: Martin Reid <upupa(AT)AIRMAIL.NET>
Date: 5 Nov 2001 5:58am

Dear All,
I managed to get more flight photos of the bird(s) at Village Creek Drying
Beds, Fort Worth.  I do not have any degree of confidence that any of these
photos refer to the same individual.  Snipe appear to be strongly social
even in migration; is it reasonable to speculate that there is more than
one gallinago-type present? go to the original page:
http://www.martinreid.com/snipe2.html
- and click on the latest new link.
I cannot locate any images of known delicata showing the underwing (in
flight or in the hand) - can anyone provide/refer me to such photos?
Although I have examined 170+ delicata specimens, all but about two were
study skins, such that it is only possible to peek at the outer part of the
underwing (without risking damaging the specimen), so in reality, I have
not been able to critically examine many fully-open delicata underwings;
has anyone out there obtained experience of fully-open delicata wings?
Cheers,
Martin

Martin Reid
Fort Worth, Texas
upupa(AT)airmail.net
http://www.martinreid.com  or  http://www.cyberramp.net/~upupa


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Subject: Re: Snipe Identification: more intriguing photos
From: "Norman D.van Swelm" <Norman.vanswelm(AT)WXS.NL>
Date: 5 Nov 2001 2:40pm

Martin wrote:>I managed to get more flight photos of the bird(s) at Village
Creek Drying
>Beds, Fort Worth.  I do not have any degree of confidence that any of these
>photos refer to the same individual.  Snipe appear to be strongly social
>even in migration; is it reasonable to speculate that there is more than
>one gallinago-type present? go to the original page:
>http://www.martinreid.com/snipe2.html
>- and click on the latest new link.
>I cannot locate any images of known delicata showing the underwing (in
>flight or in the hand) - can anyone provide/refer me to such photos?
>Although I have examined 170+ delicata specimens, all but about two were
>study skins, such that it is only possible to peek at the outer part of the
>underwing (without risking damaging the specimen), so in reality, I have
>not been able to critically examine many fully-open delicata underwings;
>has anyone out there obtained experience of fully-open delicata wings?<

The birds you photographed on the 24th October are the spitting images of
the two I saw at the end of July over here in Holland. The distances these
birds fly! Your delicata not only shows a bulging frontal eyebrow but also
an eye-stripe which narrows sharply behind it's eye, a feature that struck
me on my bird as well.
As for your gallinago I would say that this is a very typical one and I
congratulate you with it.
Norman


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Subject: Re: Snipe Identification
From: Peter Adriaens <Peter.Adriaens(AT)KENDER-THIJSSEN.BE>
Date: 6 Nov 2001 2:35am

This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.

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Hi all,

one spread wing from an adult Wilson's Snipe from October can be seen at:
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/COSNwing2.jpg    (underwing)
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/COSNwing1.jpg    (upperwing)

With regard to field identification, I would certainly not rely heavily on
head pattern alone, since it can be identical in both species. See e.g. the
following photographs of a Common Snipe banded in France, showing much the
same head pattern as Norman describes:
http://pdubois.free.fr/oiseaux/images/GallinagoGallinago.jpg
http://pdubois.free.fr/oiseaux/images/GallinagoGallinago1.jpg

Regards,
Peter Adriaens

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Subject: Re: Snipe Identification
From: "Norman D.van Swelm" <Norman.vanswelm(AT)WXS.NL>
Date: 6 Nov 2001 2:41pm

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

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    Peter Adriaens wrote: >With regard to field identification, I would =
certainly not rely heavily on head pattern alone, since it can be =
identical in both species. See e.g. the following photographs of a =
Common Snipe banded in France, showing much the same head pattern as =
Norman describes:

    http://pdubois.free.fr/oiseaux/images/GallinagoGallinago.jpg=20
    http://pdubois.free.fr/oiseaux/images/GallinagoGallinago1.jpg<=20
    Very similar, but look again at Martin's delicata and you will see =
that the narrowing of the eye stripe in delicata behind the eye is more =
clear cut while in the gallinago photo's you refer to one of the =
individual merely shows a fuzzy pale centre in a dark area..

    Norman

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Subject: a snipe quiz
From: Martin Reid <upupa(AT)AIRMAIL.NET>
Date: 6 Nov 2001 6:53pm

Dear all,
I have prepared a "quiz" of sorts, with a mixture of gallinago and delicata
skins together:
http://www.martinreid.com/snipe4.html
Feel free to reply to ID-F, reply to me privately (I'll only share any
results in summary form), or mutter your thoughts under your breath - I'll
post the answer in about a week, and will then also provide some photos of
the secondaries and outer retrix of each specimen; you may be surprised at
what they reveal....
Regards,
Martin

Martin Reid
Fort Worth, Texas
upupa(AT)airmail.net
http://www.martinreid.com  or  http://www.cyberramp.net/~upupa


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Subject: E. Beach Tern Pictures. (fwd)
From: ian paulsen <ipaulsen(AT)KRL.ORG>
Date: 6 Nov 2001 9:44pm

HI ALL:
 Any comments as to Species?

Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
ipaulsen(AT)krl.org
A.K.A.: "Birdbooker"
"Rallidae all the way"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2001 22:31:41 -0600
From: Brush Freeman <brush(AT)ONR.COM>
To: TEXBIRDS(AT)LIST.AUDUBON.ORG
Subject: E. Beach Tern Pictures.

   Martin has kindly prepared a site on the TBRC website where the Elegant
(?) Tern images can be located.  I thank Martin for his efforts as well as
Eric Carpenter who scanned my portion of the images into Martin.
   These images are not great but they are the ones we selected that we
thought would be most helpful.

   A bit of Explanation regarding the images...........
   The third images shows the smudge on the bill, it may also show the bill
as appearing yellow on your screen...This is an artifact of the light angle
as you can see from the other photographs.
    The fourth image shows only the back of the bird to display the
crest.  Martin has noted the bird with an arrow.
     The seventh image is of the bird with wings out-stretched though the
head can not be seen.

The page can not be directly linked per Martin but the URL
is:  http://members.tripod.com/~tbrc/tern.htm

Cheers,
Brush Freeman

---------------------------------------------------

For answers to questions about this listserve, visit
the Texbirds Reference Page at http://www.moonmountaingroup.com/texbirds

For up to date Texas Birding Links, visit
the Texas Birding Links Page at
http://www.moonmountaingroup.com/texbirds/links.html


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Subject: Re: E. Beach Tern Pictures. (fwd)
From: Eric Carpenter <Ecarpe(AT)AOL.COM>
Date: 6 Nov 2001 9:48pm

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The discussion about this bird is on-going on the TEXBIRDS listserv.  The
relative comments can be found via the following URL:

http://list.audubon.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?S2=texbirds&q=elegant+or+cayenne&s=&f=&
a=1+Nov+2001&b=

Eric Carpenter
Austin, TX, USA
ecarpe(AT)aol.com

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Subject: Possible Pacific Golden-Plover
From: Mark Stackhouse <westwings(AT)SISNA.COM>
Date: 7 Nov 2001 9:24am

I'd like some comments on a possible Pacific Golden-Plover that was seen in Utah
 last month. A
couple of photos of this bird can be seen at:

http://www.utahbirds.org/PicOfMonth/Main.htm

One feature that does not show well in these photos is the uneven spacing of the
 primary tips.
The primary extension shows three feather tips, with the last two being very
close together. How
reliable is this as a mark for _fulva_?

Replies can be made to me personally, or to the group.

Good birding!

Mark Stackhouse
Westwings, Inc.
1432 Downington Ave.
Salt Lake City, UT 84105
tel./fax. (801) 487-9453
westwings(AT)sisna.com


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Subject: Late Pewee in Wisconsin
From: John Idzikowski <idzikoj(AT)UWM.EDU>
Date: 7 Nov 2001 11:59am

This morning a very late Pewee was photographed in Milwaukee in poor light
under overcast skies. It struck me as being very dark for our typical
Easterns in spite of the light. I don't expect that we will able to be
confident about an identification but I have posted the digitals of this
bird to solicit comments anyway.

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1596768&a=13959384

John Idzikowski, Milwaukee


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Subject: Re: Late Pewee in Wisconsin
From: allen chartier <amazilia1(AT)HOME.COM>
Date: 7 Nov 2001 2:06pm

John,

Thank you for sending these JPEGs to me to view.  One comment I have is on
photo 10.  The underside of the bill seems to be dark only on the distal
half (or less).  I have banded juvenile Eastern Wood-Pewees with
considerably more darkness on the lower mandible than your bird shows.  This
one character (a dangerous way to approach ID, but the only character I feel
I can comment on at this time) points to Eastern in my opinion.

Allen Chartier
1442 W. River Park Dr.
Inkster, MI  48141
amazilia1(AT)home.com
Website: http://www.amazilia.net
Michigan HummerNet: http://www.amazilia.net/MIHummerNet/index.htm


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Subject: Re: Possible Pacific Golden-Plover
From: Julian Hough <Jrhough1(AT)AOL.COM>
Date: 7 Nov 2001 4:38pm

A brief look at the photos impart more features suggestive of American.

The overall plumage lacks strong yellow-olive tones, and the spangling on the
upperparts look dense, lacking the boader, yellower spangling of Pacific.
The primary projection/tertial length ratio also favors American rather than
Pacific.

Underparts don't seem to show a whiter belly (often noticeable on Pacifics)
and the legs look slightly shorter than I would expect for a Pacific. Bill
also looks like a typical American, lacking the heavier/longer appearance of
some Pacifics.

Julian Hough
CT, USA

Naturescape Images website:
http://members.aol.com/jrhough1/index.html


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Subject: Re: Possible Pacific Golden-Plover
From: Charlie Wright <Birdking88(AT)AOL.COM>
Date: 7 Nov 2001 4:57pm

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Greetings ID-Frontiers,
  I don't believe this bird is a Pacific Golden-Plover. To me, the markings
on the wings are not bright enough or extensive enough for the majority of
juvenile Pacifics, and I have seen juvenile Americans with even slightly
brighter markings than this. The underparts are not buffy but rather a light
gray, similar to American. The wing coverts are mostly gray, while the
scapulars are lightly dotted with buff. The primary projection looks quite
long to me; about the same length or slightly shorter than the tertials. The
primaries (as far as I can see in the photo) look evenly spaced, and the legs
don't look as long or as thin as what I've typically seen in Pacific.
  The only thing that points towards Pacific for me is the head pattern and
bill shape. However, I have seen an American with a supercilium similar to
this and I believe there are Americans out there that have Pacific-like
superciliums. The bill is harder to explain; all of the Americans I've seen
have had a thinner, longer-appearing bill. I'm looking forward to more
comments on this intriguing bird.

Charlie Wright
Birdking88(AT)aol.com
Sumner, WA

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Subject: Re: E. Beach Tern Pictures. (fwd)
From: Laurent Raty <l_raty(AT)HOTMAIL.COM>
Date: 10 Nov 2001 2:09am

Hi all,

> The discussion about this bird is on-going on the TEXBIRDS listserv.
> The relative comments can be found via the following URL:
>
>http://list.audubon.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?
>S2=texbirds&q=elegant+or+cayenne&s=&f=&a=1+Nov+2001&b=

One (or two, seemingly, now?) more interesting bird(s), in any case,
whatever the species ;-)
To my eye, at least, the descriptions and pics seem certainly closer to
Elegant than to anything else.

Now that a two-bird theory is now starting to build at Galveston (one bird
would have black smudges on both sides of the bill, black legs and a
slightly shorter crest, the other would have a clean bill, some red
coloration on the tibia and a slightly longer and glossier crest), this
makes writing comments a bit more complex, but I'll try anyway.

I fully agree with David Sibley :
http://list.audubon.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0111&L=texbirds&P=R5255
that the TX bird(s) appear not to be LC. (I would, however, be cautious when
using characters based on nominate LC, to exclude emigrata. Emigrata is
paler and noticeably larger than bengalensis. Note also that LC rump is
normally not white, but can still appear paler than the back, and that tail
feathers, though rarely, can be whitish.)

General structure and size (as described - size is not accurately assessable
from the pics, IMHO) of the TX bird(s) seem OK to me for Elegant in
comparison to acuflavida Sandwiches (I would expect a less obvious size
difference in comparison to sandvicensis Sandwiches). Head pattern appears
to be typically that of basic Elegant. Bill shape looks good too, and the
obvious shade from a rich reddish base into a yellow tip is normal, as far
as I know, only in Elegant. In my opinion, this combination of characters
should rule out Cayenne Tern(s) too.

The black smudge on the bill (of one bird) is a bit disturbing, though I
don't believe it is indicative of Cayenne.
Black apparently can occur on an adult Elegant's bill, but I've read various
interpretations of its presence. On the one side, it can be considered as
"just variation" (black elements are frequent on the bill of juv Elegants).
On the other side, it seems that some adult birds seen in recent years in CA
have been suspected as being Sandwich x Elegant hybrids on this base,
although it was never proved. Suspicion arose following the description of a
hybridization case at Bolsa Chica in 1995 (see Charles Collins' note in
Western Birds 28-3(1997): 169-173 for details).

I've no clear idea about how (in)frequent this black smudging is actually,
which parts of the bill it "normally" affects, nor about the extent of black
that was shown by the "suspect" birds. A short description of one such bird
was published in the CBRC 1996 report: this individual had an almost
Sandwich-like bill coloration, but with some red along the basal part of the
tomia. This, obviously, would make it much more suspect than the Galveston
bird. On the other hand, I know the amount of black on "possible hybrids"
has been variable, and I suspect this last bird was among the most striking.

The actual appearance of hybrid Elegant x Sandwich older than chicks is
unknown, but has been inferred from the appearance of known hybrids LC x
Sandwich, based on similarity between the two orange-billed parents. Known
F1 LC hybrids had a mainly black bill, like Sandwich, but with some
restricted yellow areas - a parallel with Elegant results in something
similar to the CA bird described above. However, hybrid LC chicks from GB
differed strikingly in bill coloration from hybrids Elegant x Sandwich
chicks from France: the pics I've seen of the former show a dull greenish
bill with a greyish base, the latter had clean *bright orange* bills. It
may therefore be premature to make any assumption about a similarity in
bill pattern for older birds.

It has recently been suggested on TexBirds that the apparent differences
between the two(?) birds could be age-related. The possibility of one 1W
bird and one adult was even thrown out. However, if anything, the moult of
the bird(s) shown on the pics excludes any 1W (inner web of p10 visible from
above on the folded wing, indicating a moult wave running just below this
feather; 1W should have no visible moult on the folded wing, they could at
best be replacing their innermost pp - BTW, checking the exact moult
advancement could be an efficient way to distinguish between two
individuals, too, I'm not sure it was done.)

The Galveston bird(s) could have been blown up out of the Caribbean by a
recent hurricane. However, there's probably no way to be sure they're not
hanging around together with N-American Sandwiches since a while. Should I
dare to suggest that the possibility of one pure Elegant and one hybrid bird
should, at the very least, be addressed?

I have another minor concern (possibly due to my ignorance of some facts)
about the mantle and upperwing tone that shows on the pics. The exact shade
of grey is quite hard to assess from the pics due to the strong sun - it
could be better to have a first-hand comment about it, and to know if it is
similar on both birds if there are two of them - but on pic #1, that shows
the bird and a Sandwich side by side and under quite similar angles, the
Elegant seems slightly paler and whiter than the Sandwich.
In fact, I've no idea of the real significance of this and I would welcome
thoughts. European birds, identified as Elegants, have varied from very
slightly darker to quite distinctly paler, in direct comparison to European
Sandwich Terns - I can't refrain finding this variation a bit
unexpected...(?)
Generally, the literature seems to indicate that Elegant should be slightly
darker and a bit browner than "Sandwich" (without subspecies specification,
as usual) and, according to Gunter De Smet, the two American Elegant skins
we have at the IRSNB (Brussels) appear indeed darker than nominate Sandwich
skins. If acuflavida is really paler than sandvicensis, the difference
should theoretically be enhanced... Any comment?

Some additional thoughts about ageing:
Again, perhaps I simply lack experience - but I know for sure that
clinching the age of a tern that is more than one-year old can be really
tricky. The original bird (the one with black on the bill) was aged as a
probable 2nd-winter, based on dark tail corners and a dark secondary bar.
Unfortunately, the tail is not shown accurately on any of the online pics.
However:
(1) From what can be seen on pic #3, the bird apparently has 8 fresh full
primaries, 2/3-grown p9 and old p10. My interpretation of MO&L's text is
that this could be rather advanced for a 2B and more in line with an adult
("Second-winter [...] has unmoulted juv outer primaries until around Jan").
(2) From MO&L again: "Moult to second-winter [...] In Aug-Sep, remaining
juv tail feathers (usually t6) [...] are moulted". Is this normal,
therefore, if we can still use the tail pattern to age a bird in Nov? Just
a thought: couldn't old adult tail feathers darken, as do the primaries, in
such an extent that they could sometimes be mistaken as juvenile?
(3) Several European birds, identified as Elegants, have shown a dark
secondary bar (but, to my knowledge, none had dark tail corners). This has
been variably interpreted, either as a *possible* indication of immaturity,
either as a *possible* difference between adult Sandwich and (some) adult
Elegant Terns.
Philippe Dubois, in an account of the French Elegant Tern sightings,
published in Ornithos 1(1994): 74-79, wrote that a dark grey secondary bar
was present in many adult Elegants observed at nest in CA in 1994.
It could also be worth to note that MO&L themselves show a bird (plate 60),
that they age as "2nd-winter" based on a prominent, complete dark secondary
bar. This pic is taken in mid-April and the bird apparently has a full
black cap as a summer adult and, as far as I can see, a white tail.
To conclude: I have found quite contradictory evidences about the validity
of this character on pure Elegant Terns.
To muddy things a bit more, I recently had the suggestion made to me, that
immature plumages often show traces of ancestral characters, and that
ancestral characters can reappear in hybrids...
(4) On a 2nd-winter, it seems that the retained p10 and corresponding
coverts should be juvenile (see quote in point (1) above). If so: can a
worn juvenile p10 show such an obviously contrasting blackish tip pattern,
and almost pure white inner web, as shown on the pics, and shouldn't a dark
outer primary covert be more apparent?

Best regards to all,
Laurent

Laurent Raty
Brussels, Belgium
l_raty(AT)hotmail.com