[obol] Need Sauvie Island Bird Help

[Lyn Topinka]

hi groups ...

yesterday (May 31) a friend and I were touring around Sauvie Island 
looking for birds ... went down Rentenaar Road to see if we could 
find the Phalarope that Wink Gross mentioned on friday ... at what we 
"assumed" was Wink's "shorebird flats"  (just before 
turnaround/parking at end of road) we stopped to watch ... nice spot 
to sit for a while ... the "flats" had a female Mallard, a pair of 
Northern Shovelers, and a pair of Blue-winged Teals ... we also saw a 
Heron, Egret, Killdeer,  Red-winged, and lots of brown tweety thngs 
... overhead we watched Cowbirds beating up on a Red-tailed Hawk, an 
Osprey flew by, plus lots of Eagles ...

our "interesting bird of the day" however was a Plover  (we are 
assuming) down on the flats ... it wasn't close to the road and 
virtually impossible to see without binocs ... we only had 8 power 
binocs as we both stupidly left our scopes at home, each thinking the 
other one had packed theirs ... what we saw in the sunlight was 
basically a white head and back, with a hint of grey in the back ... 
the face, breast, and tummy were solid black ... from our distance 
and with the bright sunlight it looked like a black and white bird ...

my question --- if someone else sees this bird can you please let me 
know what variety it was ??? ... from the books I would guess 
Black-bellied, mainly because it has the lightest head which from our 
distance would wash out into white in the sunlight ... the other 
Plovers in the books appear to have much darker heads ...

and, if it turns out not to be a Plover, by all means let me know 
that too !!!!!!!!!!!! ...

thanks all,
Lyn



Lyn Topinka
http://EnglishRiverWebsite.com
http://ColumbiaRiverImages.com
http://RidgefieldBirds.com