Shorebirds, Plovers, Snipe and Phalarope Gallery :

GREATER OR LESSER SANDPLOVER (Charadrius leschenaultii) Augusta County - September 7, 2009

Images have been reviewed by Erik Hirschfield and it's his determination the sand plover is a Greater. Erik Hirschfield has done years of extensive field work involving both species of sand plovers and has written several articles. I have also received late word that Peter Pyle has reviewed the images and is in agreement that it is a Greater. Both Hirschfield and Pyle were involved with the identification of the first US record at Bolina Lagoon, California back in 2001. Several of those images have been compared to those taken of the Augusta bird. The interesting write-up byJoseph Morlan on the first US record can be found at http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jmorlan/sandplover.htm.