Date: 8/25/26 9:00 am From: <lehman.paul...> via groups.io <lehman.paul...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] ID issues with Solitary Sandpipers and other rarer shorebirds
As an e-bird reviewer, I have seen a fair number of reports of misidentified shorebirds in the past week or so. Some involve the usual problem of reports of Lesser yellowlegs that are really Greater yellowlegs. And in the last 36 hours there have been multiple reports of Solitary Sandpiper that are or are likely yellowlegs. Typically there are photos involved, but sometimes details about the plumage or habitat choice also strongly suggest the species is something else. As some of you have heard me say locally on repeated occasions, if one wishes to find and/or correctly identify some of our rarer early fall shorebirds, one needs to be able to properly AGE them first. If one does not know how to age a peep, for example, finding or identifying properly a Semipalmated Sandpiper becomes extremely difficult. In the case of almost all of our rare shorebirds now that we are in August, a huge percent of them are juveniles. So birders are encouraged to learn what the juvenile plumages of these species look like and that if one is scanning through a large flock of birds, that one should be able to tell the juveniles apart from the adults and use that as a starting point.
Paul Lehman, San Diego
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