Jaeger - Schmaeger!

["Kristin Purdy" <kristinpurdy at comcast dot net>]

I'm feeling sort of sour-grapesy today.  Is it because the identity of a 
bird I thought I knew is now in question?  

Nope.  It's because I've pulled out all my hair, chewed off all my 
nails, eaten all the ice cream in the freezer, and even I'm no longer 
sure of the identity of the Willard Bay jaeger.  

The multitude of photos I've reviewed of "our" jaeger and others since 
the sighting has depicted freeze-frame images of features the eye can't 
usually see well.  I'm bleary-eyed from examining the color and extent 
of primary feather shafts, bills and their nails on the end, and zig-zag 
or straight barring on tail coverts.  This has been an exercise in 
separating the fly poop from the pepper. 

Phooey.  

When I hung up the phone with Cindy and Steve Sommerfeld Saturday 
afternoon, I posted their most excellent find, grabbed Kaufman's 
'Advanced Birding'-- an invaluable reference with a chapter on sorting 
out the three jaeger species--and headed out the door.  The group that 
converged on the bird observed carefully, understood what features we 
needed to see and then after dark, reconvened at a restaurant on the way 
home to consolidate Steve's initial notes and our impressions while they 
were fresh.  Golly, we were good.  

But the photographs have made the ID murky at best.  I no longer think 
the photos clearly indicate either species and the ID will be a matter 
of opinion.    

So...what's a girl to do?  I've got two choices.  In that 'Advanced 
Birding' book, Kenn Kaufmann advises, "If any group of birds leaves you 
confused, irritated, or uninterested, simply ignore that group."  I 
could just ignore the whole darn thing.  My second choice is to buy a 
wig, a set of Lee Press-On Nails, a couple quarts of Haagen-Daz, and get 
back to those photographs.  Hmmm.  Decisions, decisions...

Kris

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