I do not know "how close" we are to having the AOU officially split
> "Short-billed Dowitcher" into three species, but my guess is that the
birds did
> that about 10,000 years ago and the taxonomists are yet to catch up.
>
> The differences between breeding plumage Prairie [hendersoni] and Atlantic
> [griseus] are handled fairly well in Sibley and the 5th Geo guide. For a
> fuller treatment get out "The Shorebird Guide" by O'Brien, Crossley &
> Karlson.
>
> When I started birding, the field guides had only "Dowitcher", because
> Long-billed was at that time a subspecies.
> Jim Stasz
> North Beach MD
> 

Folks,
In case none of you know the legend about Jim, he began birding with some
kid up the block named Audubon. However Jim disliked it when Audubon began
shooting "specimens" as he called them, so he could paint them. Jim
suggested that he just take pictures, which was very confusing at the time.
Seems cameras hadn't been invented yet.

As usual Jim is ahead of his time. I take it Jim favors splitting them ASAP.
Guess he needs the extra ticks on his list.

Turns out the only shorebird book I have other than the Bent series (maybe I
otta run downstairs and check that out too) is the Shorebirds of America by
Dennis Paulson, a prolific scientist who also wrote one of the guides to
birding in Washington. He shows all 3 plumages. States that the Prairie
(hendersoni) is found on either coast in migration but that the other two
have never been found on the wrong coast. Hence we are very unlikely to get
a Pacific (caurinus) and California may never see an Atlantic (griseus).
Paulson does not discuss the likelihood that we have 3 separate species that
need splitting but he does talk like they hardly know each other. Reading
between the lines I think he would favor a split.

And in case any of you were wondering the sun went down just in time to keep
the lake from boiling today. The bass in there hate it when that happens.

Jerry Tarbell
Reading about shorebirds in Carroll County because it's too hot to look for
them.