Figure 120. The adult Terek Sandpiper that remained for nearly a month at the mouth of the Carmel River, Monterey County, as depicted on 3 September 1988 (1988-160; Tim Manolis).

 

Figures 121, 122 (above, below). California’s solitary record of the Terek Sandpiper refers to this adult, present from 28 August to 23 September 1988 at the mouth of the Carmel River in Monterey County (1988-160). During its stay, the bird was seen by hundreds of observers and was videotaped and photographed extensively, including on 4 September (Edward D. Greaves) and 11 September (James Lomax).

Figure 122.

 

Figure 215. This photograph of California’s only Terek Sandpiper, an adult that remained at the mouth of the Carmel River in Monterey County from 28 August to 23 September 1988, was taken on the day of its discovery (1988-160; Peter LaTourrette).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEREK SANDPIPER Xenus cinereus (Güldenstädt, 1775)

Accepted: 1 (50%)	Treated in Appendix H: no
Not accepted: 1	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 0	Large color image: see Figures

This distinctive sandpiper breeds from central and northern Russia eastward to northern Siberia. It winters on the southern Atlantic coast of Africa and eastward along the perimeter of the Indian Ocean to northern Australia and New Zealand. It is a very rare but regular migrant, mostly in spring, through the western Aleutian Islands, and occurs casually in the Pribilofs, on St. Lawrence Island, and on Alaska’s mainland. Elsewhere in North America, a bird was photographed in British Columbia (Sooke, 21 July–6 August 1987; Goodwill and Goodwill 1988) and sight records exist for northeastern Manitoba (Churchill, 13 July 1972; Godfrey 1986) and Massachusetts (Plum Island, 23 June 1990; Stemple et al. 1991). As summarized by Galindo et al. (2004), a surprising number of New World records come from the tropics and subtropics, including singles in Barbados (photographed 1 May 2000), Trinidad (28 June 1999), and Brazil (16 March 1977), two in Argentina (December 1987–January 1988, December 1990), and one in Baja California Sur (21 April–May 2002, returning 22 August 2002–10 February 2003).

California’s unique record of the Terek Sandpiper refers to a widely seen adult present from 28 August to 23 September 1988 at Carmel River State Beach in Monterey County (Wilson and Harriman 1989; Figures 120–122, 215). By 9 October of the same fall, two other Siberian species that remain otherwise unknown in the state—the Long-toed Stint and Gray Wagtail—were found in Monterey County within 12 miles of this bird’s location.