American Golden Plover in Peniche

On the morning of 28 October, I did visit Peniche to do my routine seabird count and checking a few spots for rare birds. When I was checking the fields around the sewage treatment pond, I noticed on the horizon a flock of around 200 Golden plovers, flying in circles above the fields that connect Peniche to Baleal. With time constraints I had to go home, but it stayed in my mind that I had to return and check that flock a little closer. And so I did, that afternoon. 

The flock was very mobile and did fly around for some time before it settled in the middle of the open field, feeding very actively. I sat on the slope, and with my eye on the scope, I start checking every bird.

What a joy to see so many Golden plovers, different ages, and moult progressions. About 20min into the flock, there was an obvious juvenile American Golden plover! A bold white supercilium, greyish upperparts and greyish-brown underparts and more athletic. Was interesting to notice the feeding action compared to the European Golden-plovers, the bird did run a little more while feeding, making it easy to track among the busy flock. A few minutes later the bird took off and, with my zoom down to the 30x, I could appreciate the brownish underwing pattern contrasting with the European Golden plovers.

A few birds caught my attention, but I could never be sure of their Id and definitely, more work should be done with this flock.

Poor photo of the Juv American Golden Plover

Poor photo of the Juv American Golden Plover

Part of the flock of European Golden Plovers

Part of the flock of European Golden Plovers