Greetings,

So much for saying "the third time is the charm", it took me four trips to 
finally succeed in seeing this astounding bird. What a beauty! The bird was 
at this location from its arrival at 11:50 this morning and was still 
present when I left at about 5:45. I'm sure it flew off to its normal 
roosting ground, wherever that is, but I don't have verification of that. 
Today the bird was on the north side of the field where there is a fenceline 
separating the field in which this bird is being seen from a neighboring 
property. The bird was generally working along a swale that parallels the 
fenceline, working in the swale and the areas near the fenceline. On the 
other side of the fenceline there are 4-5 hayrolls visible from the roadway. 
The bird was mostly observed near the area of the hayrolls, but on the south 
side of the fence to about 100 yards from the roadway.

While the group of birders was enjoying this bird this afternoon, several of 
the locals stopped along the way to make some comments about recent sighting 
and observations. Some of these are remarkable and need further 
documentation. Here goes:

1. We were told that the bird was actually absent from the fields only for 
several days after it was last observed on the 17th. After several days, the 
bird was reported to have returned and has been seen regularly by the locals 
since. I believe it is being observed mostly in the afternoons. This seems 
to be the case over the last couple of days as well.

2. A local on Blacks Mill Rd. reported to someone that the Lapwing turned up 
sometime between August and October, but I believe August was the stated 
time frame. If true, the bird had been at this location for 6 months before 
being discovered by a birder. They knew the bird was something that they had 
never seen before but didn't know what to think of it. Who knows, but wait, 
the legend gets oh so much better.

3. A local reported to Barbara Gerst (I'm not sure of the last name 
spelling, forgive me.) of Montgomery County while she was there today, that 
there are actually TWO LAPWINGS BEING SEEN! Sometimes the birds have 
supposedly been seen together! Barbara questioned the woman who then 
described two birds of similar appearance with the correct plumages, crests, 
etc. She did not describe a second bird that sounded like a Killdeer.

4. This seems too unbelievable to be true. So after Barbara left, another 
local, along with his wife and another older woman in the car, stopped along 
the road and inquired to us if the BIRDS, not bird, were in the field. We 
asked him do you mean THE Lapwing and he responded, "No, there's two of 
them." He stated that sometime last week, both birds were in the puddle near 
Graceham Rd., in the northwest corner of the field at the same time. Another 
local who also saw the birds quickly drove to her home and retrieved a 
digital camera in which she took some photos of both birds. She is reported 
to have captured on one image both birds at the same time. I have asked for 
a copy of this photo for documentation for the MD Records Committee. It has 
not yet arrived. I am told that the second bird is not clear in the image 
but should be identifiable as a lapwing from color patterning.

While this was being relayed to me, both ladies were in the car nodding 
their heads in agreement to everything he, the local, said. He stated that 
one of the birds was performing a behavior in front of the other one that 
could only be interpreted as courting. He said the bird would prance in 
front of the other one and bob it head back and forth. He said it was 
comical to watch. He stated that he also took some photos of both birds, but 
none of the birds are captured on the same image. Shouldn't be too difficult 
to detect differences in plumage to verify this if it's true as long as the 
images are halfway decent. These were taken on actual filmand he hasn't 
gotten the roll developed yet.

5. This got me wondering, so I looked at the images posted on the link from 
the message below

http://tinyurl.com/5fw3t

and compared them to images that are on the mdbirds.org site taken by 
several photographers two weeks ago. Here's that link:

http://www.mdbirds.org/birds/gallery/lapwing.html

This proved interesting but I don't have any knowledge of molt sequences or 
timing for this species. A molt would be the only way, in my opinion, to 
explain some of the distinct differences between the birds on the two 
websites.

Let's call the images taken yesterday and posted today by June Tveekrem 
Lapwing A. The photos on MDBIRDS by George Jett, Bob Mumford and Mark 
Hoffman we'll call Lapwing B. The birds on MDBIRDS all aprear to be the same 
individual and were taken two 1/2 weeks ago.

a. On the folded wings of Lapwing B, especially when facing left, there are 
obvious light edges on at least 4-5 of the covert feathers. On Lapwing A, 
there do not appear to be as many edgings and those that occur do not seem 
to match up with the patterns on bird B. This could be a result of wear 
after two weeks, I suppose. I need to spend some time cleaning up the images 
that are on the MDBIRDS site to brighten them up a bit and then put all of 
the images on one page to make direct comparisons. I haven't had time.

b. Lapwing A has some white spotting in the dark crown above the eyeline, 
especially over the left eye. This is very apparant in the 4th, 5th, and 6th 
images from the top on the site. Images of Lapwing B do not seem to show 
this feature. Compare the head-on images on both sites and the spots absence 
on Lapwing B are obvious.

c. Lapwing A's face pattern seems a bit different than Lapwing B. Again it 
is most apparant when looking at left profiles. On Lapwing A, the brown line 
extending from the rear of the eye and the black line extending from below 
the eye appear to nearly merge. On Lapwing B the white line separating the 
brown and black lines seems to be broader.

d. Although some of the images of Lapwing A show a dark bill, there are at 
least 3 that show that the bill is an orangish-red. None of the images of 
Lapwing B record this from any angle. Is this something that can only be 
distinguished in bright sunlight? The bird I saw today through thickening 
clouds clearly had an orangish-red bill. The sun was not out while I was 
there, although the lighting must have been better than when Lapwing B was 
photographed.

e. If these differences don't seem to be significant enough to make a 
judgement or appear too close to call, take note of the throat color of both 
birds. This is the most glaring difference in the comparisons. In all of the 
images of Lapwing B taken over two weeks ago, including the birds in flight 
by Mark Hoffman, the throat is obviously white and the black mustache stripe 
terminates below the eye without connecting to the black of the bird's upper 
chest. On Lapwing A, in all images, the throat is clearly and undisputably 
black all the way from the base of the bill to the chest. Is this a result 
of a spring molt? The face and neck pattern has certainly changed if these 
are images of the same bird.

You be the judge. If your going out there to look at this/these bird(s) 
please keep a sharp eye out for the possibility of a second bird and try to 
get photo documentation if you find out the local rumors are true. Good 
luck.

Ed Boyd
Westminster, MD

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "June Tveekrem" <>
To: <>
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2005 8:07 PM
Subject: [MDOSPREY] Photos of Lapwing in sunlight


> I've posted several photos of the Lapwing at this URL:
> http://tinyurl.com/5fw3t
> (select "Lapwing Photos" from the menu on the left).
>
> The photos were taken yesterday (Thursday March 3) from 2:30-3:00 pm. 
> They aren't as high quality as the ones on the MOS website, but they show 
> the resplendent colors of the bird well since the sun was shining brightly 
> that afternoon.  Enjoy!*
>
> *
>
> -- 
> June Tveekrem
> Columbia, Howard Co, MD
> tweekiebird AT toadmail DOT com