Pacific Golden-Plover, Sikorsky Airport, Stratford CT 10/30/20

Pacific Golden-Plover, Sikorsky Airport, Stratford CT 10/30/20

In heavy wind and rain at Stratford's Sikorsky Airport, Frank Mantlik found on 10/29/20, what will be, if accepted, the first Connecticut record of a Pacific Golden-Plover, a species split from the American Golden-Plover around 1992.  This bird, probably a molting adult, show distinctive retained golden and white flecking above, and compared to American Golden-Plover, a longer, larger bill and a rounder, larger head.  A few poor record photos were taken in the PM (morning trip was brutal: wind-driven snow and rain.  In one photo the plover in in front of a Hudsonian Godwit.

Pacific Golden-Plover, Sikorsky Airport, Stratford CT 10/30/20

Pacific Golden-Plover, Sikorsky Airport, Stratford CT 10/30/20

Pacific Golden-Plover, Sikorsky Airport, Stratford CT 10/30/20

Pacific Golden-Plover in front of Hudsonian Godwit

Pacific Golden-Plover, Sikorsky Airport, Stratford CT 10/30/20