We’ve always been proud of the clean look and easy “navigation” of the WINGS website, but over the past couple of weeks, a good thing has got even better.

In addition to all the usual information about upcoming tours, the redesigned website now offers “real-time” reports from WINGS leaders in the field, alerts of new itineraries and tour narratives, and a rotating series of breathtaking slideshows.

There’s also a link at the bottom of the page letting you connect to our Facebook account. And we have some other e-tricks still up our sleeve to  make our website ever more interactive. Yes, that’s a hint of things to come!

We asked:

You encounter a flock of exactly 100 small sandpipers; careful inspection proves that they are all of the same species. On a whim, you count the toes, coming up with an absolutely accurate total of 602. What is the species?

Famously, the only small sandpiper lacking a hind toe is  Sanderling. Thus, a flock of exactly 100 birds of this species should have exactly 600 toes, three per foot.  But the hypothetical flock in our question has a total of 602. What gives?

It turns out that the rare individual Sanderling can have hind toes: the first such bird I’m aware of was reported as early as 1904 by Francis H. Allen. Thus, a flock of 100 Sanderlings, including one of these eight-toed deviants, would account for a grand total of 602 toes.

Congratulations to Grant McCreary for the first correct answer and to Bob Behrstock for making us laugh out loud with his pair o’black toes!

The next WINGS trivia question will appear in the November e-newsletter. Have a look, and maybe you’ll join Grant and Bob in keeping your head warm this winter.

California’s second, believe it or not, Ivory Gull is an adult hanging out on Pismo Beach near San Luis Obispo. Gonna be a few birders there in the morning!

Paul Lehman looks back on a spectacular fall at Gambell:

I am now back home in San Diego, but Luke DeCicco et al. continue to soldier on at Gambell for another two weeks. After counting 4,375 Spectacled Eiders on 27 Sep, we added another 3,520 birds (again, almost all adult males) on 28 Sep, which included my largest SINGLE flock of the two days of 550 birds. (There are many flocks in the 25-200 range, with a few around 300 or so.) Also on the 28th we had TWO juvenile CHIPPING SPARROWS together (along with a Savannah)–my first-ever “flock” of Chippies at Gambell! Also another Greater Scaup (again, surprisingly casual in fall), and a new late-date for Rough-legged Hawk. Then, late in the afternoon–unlike the Rough-leg–I WAS able to fly off the island!

On 29 Sep, Luke obtained a local guide and visited the major lagoon complex about 10 or so miles ESE of Gambell along the north shore. There, they had an adult ROSS’S GULL feeding in the surf with Red Phalaropes. This is a very early arrival date south of the Bering Strait, the only other such early record for the area being the 4 adults I had at Gambell following the passage of an arctic front beginning on 28+ Sep in 2001. (Ross’s are said to be regular in small numbers at Gambell in Nov/Dec.) Luke also reported an exceptionally late Long-tailed Jaeger (adult), a late Parasitic Jaeger (record late for an adult), and new late dates for Dunlin (a bunch) and Peregrine Falcon.  And last but not least, Luke estimated another 5,000+ Spectacled Eiders on the 29th. So the three-day, 27-29 Sep, grand total of Spectacled Eiders there was 13,000+!

How many familiar WINGS faces can you find? Have a look especially at the roundup video from Day Two!

http://www.birdfair.tv/

Liz Payne writes from Tucson:

Loving the cooler weather, and the snakes are loving warm concrete. Last night on our evening constitutional, touring the streets around our pristine, grass-filled-Palm-Springs-esque (not a native plant in sight) townhouse, we enjoyed our own bat night along the Tanque Verde wash, with another amazing sunset.

Just as we arrived home, we came upon a tiny new 8” rattler who seemed a bit squished. Robert poked at it, and unexpectedly raised it from the dead. As soon as the bugger figured out what was going on, it coiled into position—tail rattling like mad (well, vibrating: it was little). We ditched the dogs and quickly formulated a catch and release. Grabbed a shovel (Roberto) and broom (Liz) to brush the snake into said spade.

I swept at it a bit to no avail, but after a few fierce  strikes, we relocated the critter squarely onto the shovel. Robert took off down the street, where he planned to pitch it where the concrete descends and stops abruptly about eight feet above the dry creek. It was almost dark by now, and of course the uncooperative creature fell off several times from here to there, each time moving faster and getting angrier. Needless to say, it was quite pissy by the time Robert neared the guardrail.

Robert, racing with writhing snake, cleared the railing ok, but when he hit the ground, I yelled “ahhhhhhhhhh!”

Baby rattler flew through the air; Robert careened to a halt. Just in front of the three-and-a-half-foot rattler now at his feet, lazing along the edge of the wash.

Great way to end the relaxation of a mesmerizing sunset.

The fifty-first Supplement to the AOU Check-list (still so quaintly spelled a century and a quarter after the first edition!) has been published.

In the US and Canada, we now have two whip-poor-wills, Mexican Whip-poor-will and Eastern Whip-poor-will, and the old “winter” wren is now recognized as three species, two of which–Pacific Wren and the poorly named Winter Wren sensu novo strictoque–occur in North America. “Our” black scoter is split from the Old World species and renamed Melanitta americana, vindicating good old Swainson a hundred seventy-five years after he described it; its English name is apparently uncertain, but will probably be Black Scoter in opposition to the Old World’s Common Scoter (the version of the Supplement at BioOne calls it American Scoter, but that is rumored  to be a typographic error).

While species determinations speak only to identity, genera are all about relationships, and this Supplement is full of new views about what belongs with what. Canyon, California, and Abert’s Towhees are moved over to Melozone, which they’ll be sharing with the tropical ground-sparrows; only the three rufous-sided and Green-tailed Towhees remain in the cheerful-sounding genus Pipilo.

There are some significant innovations in the warblers, too, both Old World and New. Here in North America, Vermivora is greatly diminished, now including, if I count right, only Blue-winged, Golden-winged, and the ghost of Bachman’s Warblers. The handsome old genus Oreothlypis is resurrected to contain all the other erstwhile Vermivora and two tropical “parulas,” Flame-throated and Crescent-chested Warblers; visually and intuitively, those latter two have always been thought of as intermediate between the parulas and the old-style Vermivora.

Another pair of warblers, the waterthrushes, have now got their own genus, Parkesia, bearing the name of one of the last century’s greatest museum men and warbler experts. Ovenbird stays behind to brandish its tail in Seiurus, no doubt to the posthumous frustration of Eliot Coues, who argued long and hard that it should by rights have been spelled Siurus.

It’s official now: Aimophila, that wonderful ragbag genus of wonderful ragbag sparrows, has been dismantled. In the US, only Rufous-crowned Sparrow is still an Aimophila, our others moved into the revived genus Peucaea. Five-striped Sparrow, always an uncomfortable nomenclatural fit, has gone back to Amphispiza, joining once again the visually similar Sage and Black-throated Sparrows.

The revisions don’t stop at the level of genus. There are eleven new families recognized, including the re-elevation of Osprey and the gnatcatchers to family status; the longspurs and white buntings also get their own family, Calcariidae (and McCown’s Longspur goes its own way generically once again).

The Old World “warblers,” a miscellaneous bunch if ever there was one,  are broken into many families: Cettiidae includes the bush warblers, Phylloscopidae the leaf warblers, Sylviidae the round-headed chattering warblers (now including Wrentit), and Acrocephalidae the reed warblers. Those new Eurasian families are followed in sequence by an American one, Donacobiidae, including the Donacobius.

Most far-reaching of all is the re-organization of a couple of non-passerine orders. Sunbittern and Kagu, two of the most extravagantly plumed birds anywhere, now get their own order, Eurypygiformes. The falcons and the other diurnal raptors are split into two orders, falcons and caracaras keeping hold of the old Falconiformes and the rest inserted into a new Accipitriformes.

And then there are the storks and pelicans. Ciconiiformes relinquishes everything but the storks themselves; the herons and ibises are now part of the order Pelecaniformes, where they sit alongside the pelicans to form the suborders Ardeae (herons and  bitterns) and Threskiornithes (ibises and spoonbills).

The committee giveth and the committee taketh away, and the old totipalmate swimmers are now split up into three orders: the pelicans and herons in Pelecaniformes, the Phaethontiformes (tropicbirds), and the Suliformes (frigatebirds, boobies, and cormorants).

And changes will continue. The committee rejected proposals to split the scrub-jays and the curve-billed thrashers, but watch the “pending” section of the committee’s web page for new proposals–and look forward to next July when the next Supplement will be published.

Birders interested in the taxonomy of South American birds will also want to keep up with the deliberations of the South American Checklist Committee.

Jon Dunn finished a very successful Second Spring tour Friday night–then, rather than hop on the plane for some well-deserved rest, got up early Saturday to meet a group of young Arizona birders in upper Madera Canyon.

Jon’s companions, boys, girls, and young adults, were all eager and enthusiastic birders, all of them poised to take maximum advantage of a relaxed morning afield with one of the continent’s–the world’s–most knowledgeable birders.

WINGS feels strongly that our commitment to the birding community doesn’t end when the tour comes to a close. Jon and other WINGS leaders regularly volunteer their time to local and regional birding groups, offering them the opportunity not just to rub shoulders with well-known birders but also, more importantly, to talk, to ask, to learn. And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Part of Saturday's group, with Jon Dunn and Rob Payne. Photo: Rick Wright.

If you know a young birder, why not encourage her or him to get in touch with the nearest Youth Birding Program? Here in southeast Arizona, Rob Payne (Jon’s co-leader Saturday morning) and Scott Olmstead are leading a group of young birders up Mount Lemmon on July 24.

Perhaps the most highly sought bird in all of Peru, the Long-whiskered Owlet is also among the most mysterious. Long known only from mist-netted specimens, it’s been seen a handful of times since 2007–most recently YESTERDAY by Rich Hoyer as he finished up scouting for this summer’s tour of Northern Peru. The images he sent on are among just a few photographs ever taken of this fancy-faced little owl.

Rich’s tour focuses on this and another spectacular Peruvian endemic, the Marvelous Spatuletail. We’ll keep you up to date as the tour begins later this month.

South Africa has apparently tightened up on yellow fever certificates for the world cup, wanting to see them from anyone arriving from another African country.

This has had a ripple effect throughout the continent, and apparently some countries are now insisting on seeing yellow fever certificates if you have arrived from another African country, even if you were only in transit.

Kenyan Airways flights to Tanzania, for example, stop in Nairobi; in theory, the border control at Kilimanjaro could ask to see the certificate.

If you are joining an Africa tour and your flights involve a transfer on the continent, or if you are going to be visiting another African country after your tour, this may mean that you should obtain a yellow fever certificate before starting your travels.