Memorandum to:         The Director of Birds Australia

 

From:                          Birds Australia Rarities Committee (BARC)

 

Date:                            17th January 2007

 

Voting Members:         Mike Carter                   Andrew Silcocks

                                    Rohan Clarke                 Glenn Holmes

                                    John Hatch                    Jamie Matthew

                                    Tony Palliser                 Danny Rogers

                       

cc.                                Ron Johnstone  

                                                           

 

 

Submission No 476: Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula, Rottnest Island, WA. 11th – 13th November 2005. Submitted by: Bill Rutherford.

 

 

Verdict:  Accepted

 

 

This case relates to the sighting of a bird immediately identified as an adult Ringed Plover C. hiaticula along the shoreline of Government House Lake on Rottnest Island, WA on the 11th November 2005. The bird remained in the area until at least the 13th November and provided excellent views, allowing close scrutiny of the important features.

 

The notes provide a thorough account of the circumstances behind the sighting and a detailed description of a bird in basic (winter) plumage. The description provides enough information to reliably eliminate the more regular species and the call in particular rules out the possibility of the very similar Semipalmated Plover C. semipalmatus (a species yet to be recorded in Australia). The call is described as “bubbly and liquid in quality ‘Tuui lit li’, unlike the husky ‘chew-it’ type call of the Semipalmated Plover”.

 

The observer is very familiar with the species from work conducted at nature reserves in England and has first hand experience in separating Semipalmated Plover in the field and this imbued confidence in the identification and the case for acceptance. The bird displayed no obvious signs of moult and the darker upperparts (compared to birds seen in the Europe) suggest that this bird was of the race tundrae (the most likely race to occur as a vagrant to Australia).

 

Members concurred with the observer’s analysis and voted unanimously in favour of acceptance.  The 3rd confirmed record for Australia and the first for Western Australia.

 

 

Selected Bibliography:

 

·         Beaman, M. & Madge S. (1998), The Handbook of Bird Identification for Europe and the Western Palearctic, Princeton, New Jersey.

·         BWP; Cramp, S. (Ed.) (1983) The Birds of the Western Palearctic Vol. 3, Waders to Gulls, Oxford, London

·         Dunn, J.L. (1993), “The Identification of Semipalmated and Common Ringed Plovers in Alternate Plumage”, Birding, August 1993: 238-243.

·         HANZAB; Marchant, S. & Higgins, P.J. (Eds.) (1993), Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds Vol. 2, Raptors to Lapwings, Oxford, Melbourne.

·         Hayman, P., Marchant, J. & Prater, T. (1986), Shorebirds; an Identification Guide to the Waders of the World, Croom Helm, Sydney.

·         Mullarney, K. (1991), “Identification of Semipalmated Plover, a new feature”, Birding World 7: 254-258

·         Prater, A.J., Marchant, J.H. & Vuorinen J. (1977), Guide to the identification and ageing of Holarctic Waders, British Trust for Ornithology, Tring, Herts.

 

 

 

Tony Palliser

Chairman, Birds Australia Rarities Committee