Outdoors bird watch
BY KELLY BOSTIAN Outdoors
Sunday, November 11, 2012
11/11/12 at 4:18 AM
The dunlin is among several species of sandpipers that can be found in Oklahoma during fall and spring migrations, as well as occasionally during the winter.
Its long bill, slightly curved at the tip, is one clue to identifying a dunlin. In early fall and late spring, traces of the reddish wings and black belly it has during the breeding season may be visible, but its winter plumage is a dull brownish-gray.
Careful scanning of flocks of shorebirds on mudflats or sandbars may yield sightings of a few dunlin mixed in with other sandpipers.
This week in eastern Oklahoma
ARRIVALS
Trumpeter Swan, American Scoter, Thayer's Gull, Glaucous Gull, Evening Grosbeak
DEPARTURES
Turkey Vulture, Sora, Common Gallinule, Black-bellied Plover, American Golden Plover, Pectoral Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Dan Reinking is a senior biologist at the Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville. Contact him at dreinking@ou.edu or see tulsaworld.com/suttoncenter
The Bird Watch list is excerpted from the Date Guide to the Occurrences of Birds in Oklahoma, which lists normal dates of occurrences for bird species by seven geographic regions of the state. It is a publication of the Oklahoma Bird Records Committee of the Oklahoma Ornithological Society. For full information about the guide and how to report unusual bird sightings at unusual times of year go to tulsaworld.com/okbirds.
Original Print Headline: Bird Watch
