LOUISIANA BIRD RECORDS COMMITTEE

REPORT FORM

1. English and Scientific names: Mountain Plover, Charadrius montanus

2. Number of individuals:  1

3. Locality: LOUISIANA: (parish)  Jefferson Davis

Specific Locality: NW corner of Lyons Road and Highway 14, 2 miles W of Lake Arthur

4. Date(s) when observed: 12/14/2012

5. Time(s) of day when observed: mid-morning

6. Reporting observer and address:

Paul Conover

Lafayette, LA

7. Other observers accompanying reporter who also identified the bird(s): Michael Seymour and his CBC team found and IDed the bird. Mike Musumeche and Jay Huner relocated it a mile away, Steve Cardiff and Donna Dittmann were there when I arrived, and David Muth and Phillip Wallace relocated the bird on the corner of A and D Abshire and Lyons Road. All were present for some amount of time while I was in the area.

8. Other observers who independently identified the bird(s):

9. Light conditions (position of bird in relation to shade and to direction and amount of light):  Decent light.

10. Optical equipment (type, power, condition): Nikon 20-60 X Fieldscope III, Nikon D50 attached to scope, cellphone cam.

11. Distance to bird(s): 500 feet to 500 yards.

12. Duration of observation:  Off and on about an hour 

13. Habitat: Open farmland, in plowed fields. One field was well tilled and smooth, the other less so, with clods and plowed under stubble.

14. Behavior of bird / circumstances of observation:  Bird was in open field with Killdeer and Mountain Plovers. The Mountain Plover ran in short stooped bursts then stopped

with body upright. It picked at the ground at times, and once put its head down—to feed?—and its tail up for several seconds. The plovers were spooked by Marsh Hawks several times, and flew to different locations.

15. Description (include only what was actually seen, not what "should" have been seen; include if possible: total length/relative size compared to other familiar species, body bulk, shape, proportions, bill, eye, leg, and plumage characteristics. Stress features that separate it from similar species):

A plover, smallish but relatively plump and round headed with a short, straight, thin dark bill. Perhaps 2/3 the size of Black-bellied Plovers it was with. Very rapid runner.

Overall impression a nondescript bird the color of wet sand or dry earth, a color not typically seen among local shorebirds.

Upperparts pretty evenly brown. Area around eye diffusely pale, appeared whitish. This pale area went over base of bill above, as supercilium, and onto cheek beneath eye. Eye dark, appeared beady on plain face. Bill dark.

Underparts whitish on belly and undertail. Breast washed with sandy brown. Sides of breast smudged as darker patches extending from mantle of bird.

Legs pale, but color wasn’t visible. From the distance the legs seemed as pale as the stubble in the field.

16. Voice: 

17. Similar species (include how they were eliminated by your observation):

American Golden Plover shows a brighter whitish supercilium, spangled upperparts instead of plain, even-colored back of this bird. Pacific Golden Plover similar, might show less of a supercilium, but would show spangled upperparts.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper also blondish, but shows scalloped upperparts, longer bill, slender body, much different gait.

Brownish sandpipers such as Pectoral and Baird’s Sandpipers. The bill shape of this bird was short, straight and fine, unlike the longer, slightly curved bill of Pectoral and Baird’s.

Greater and Lesser sandplovers would look similar, I think, but perhaps more strongly patterned. I have no experience with either species.

18. Photographs or tape recordings obtained? (by whom? attached?): Photos, attached.

19. Previous experience with this species:  I’ve seen Mountain Plovers several times, but not within the past decade.

20. Identification aids: (list books, illustrations, other birders, etc. used in identification):

a. at time of observation:

b. after observation:

21. This description is written from: notes the night of the observation, memory, photos  

22. Are you positive of your identification if not, explain: Yes. The field marks matched Mountain Plover exactly.

23. Date: 1/2/2013