On 25 July Lucas Brug found an ABA Code-4, male Spotted Redshank (Tringa totanus) in northwestern California on a gravel bar in the Smith River, Smith River Bottoms, Del Norte County, California. It was seen foraging alone with two Greater Yellowlegs nearby for comparison.
This individual was in alternate plumage. The beautiful Spotted Redshank is similar in structure to a Greater Yellowlegs but with shorter legs and a longer, straighter bill with a slight drop to the tip. It is a Eurasian species, rare in the Alaskan Islands, and casual on both coasts with records from such unexpected locations such as New Mexico, Nevada, Kansas, and Ohio. It breeds in both the Arctic and Subarctic from Scandinavia east across northern Russia to eastern Siberia. Spotted Redshank winters from Western Europe and eastern Africa, east to Vietnam and southeastern China. It is a long distant migrant (The Shorebird Guide, O’Brien et al.). In Europe, they pass over land on a broad front but also a significant flight occurs along the western European coast. After breeding is completed in open wooded tundra, heathland, or shrub tundra they have been recorded in a variety of habitats including sewage treatment areas, irrigated rice fields, saltmarshes, brackish lagoons, and sheltered muddy shores (Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 3).
An excellent summary of Spotted Redshank records from the ABA Area can be found in Steve Mlodinow’s 1999 article in North American Birds 53: 124-130.
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