Monday, June 11, 2012

Quiz #453 (2012-2-11) Solution

Click on picture(s) for a larger view.

Solution by Tony Leukering

Had I provided the previous week's quiz solution before anyone started submitting responses to this week's quiz, I bet that everyone would have gotten this one correct, because the important features are all noted in the solution to last week's quiz. With this bird, however, the bird appears to not be molting, which may send us into the Manx Shearwater camp, but the bird is a juvenile and they do not molt flight feathers in their first year. If you've read the previous quiz's solution than you will know to look at the face, noting the white above the eye and, most importantly, between the eye and the bill. There is one other feature that could assist ID of this quiz bird, and that is the presence of Sargassumweed in the photo, a feature of the western Atlantic Ocean with which Audubon's Shearwaters are strongly associated. I note that Margaret Smith noted all three of these features in her response -- KUDOS to you, Margaret! [An editorial note: 'kudos' is a singular noun, a word borrowed directly from Greek which has lots of '-os' endings to singular nouns.]

I took this picture of a juvenile Audubon's Shearwater near Wilmington Canyon, Cape May Co., NJ, on 11 September 2011. One respondents answer was precluded from being correct for the competition, as it lacked a capitalized 's.'

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Cory's Shearwater - 1
Black-vented Shearwater - 1
Manx Shearwater - 1

Congratulations to the 13 of 16 getting the quiz correct:
Kirk Huffstater
Ben Coulter
Tyler Bell
Al Guarente
Su Snyder
Patty McKelvey
Richard Jeffers
Margaret Smith
Peter Wilkinson
Pam Myers
Robert McNab
Josh Yoder
Sean Walters

Answer: Audubon's Shearwater