Vermont Rare Bird Reports 2020

Chip Darmstadt, Cedar Stanistreet, and Ted Murin. You have their emails.

Clear, mildly windy.

30x scope, Vortex 8x42 binoculars, Nikon D500 with 500mm lens.

Country bird. Seen twice in Scotland, twice in Iceland. Wouldn't have been able to pick it apart from Semipalmated Plovers before this event.

Wide lake mud flats at Mississquoi.

Feeding, hunching down. A Peregrine Falcon caused most of the other birds to disperse; this bird did not join the flock, causing us to spend a considerable amount of time searching for it amongst the other shorbs before dispersing and walking the entire mudflat, where it was found alone. We may have scared it; after some time observing it, it flew back north to where the other birds were, calling as it went, and we then observed it and photographed it there briefly before leaving.

Single, light 'puwee' calls given in flight. Note uploaded vocalization on eBird.

We saw Jim Mead and Henry Trombley coming out of the water as we put our canoe in; they’d seen it earlier on the mud flats, and explained that it stayed down when the other birds were buzzed by a peregrine. So we canoed out; light zephyr, sunny and lightly hazy conditions. On the flats, Cedar Stanistreet was looking for the bird, and we joined him. After an hour perusing the north end, disqualifying many SEPL with orange eye rings, we moved around to the south in a group of three, now briefly joined by Ted Murin who had given up to get back in his canoe with his family. We decided to try the south of the flats, hoping that the peregrine, which buzzed repeatedly, may have moved it there. It was finally spotted, alone, sitting on its knees, before it flew to the north side again, calling as it went. We followed it back and took many photos.

Description: Small plover larger than nearby least sandpipers and SEPL. Broad black neck band that circled around to the back of its neck. Black orbital eye ring. Dark auriculars and mask, black lores extending to gape. White supercilium extending back to back of mask, but not further. Orange legs and orange base of black beak. Prominent white forehead. Gray back with whitish undertones. White belly, black primaries. Pink tongue. Black eyes. Lack of webbing between toes. Call matched recordings.

Small plover larger than nearby least sandpipers and SEPL.

Broad black neck band that circled around to the back of its neck. Black orbital eye ring. Dark auriculars and mask, black lores extending to gape. White supercilium extending back to back of mask, but not further. Prominent white forehead. Black eyes.

Orange legs and orange base of black beak. Pink tongue. Lack of webbing between toes.

Gray back with whitish undertones.

Black primaries

White belly.

SEPL were eliminated by the lack of an orange orbital ring, by the size of the black band on the neck and the size of the white forehead mark, and by the lack of webbing between toes.

I looked at several books and articles to try to determine subspecies and age or sex. I was unable to make any firm identifications due to clinal nature of this species. However, this is an adult, showing basic plumage.