Dealing with Spuhs

All birders know that not every bird is identifiable. Sometimes you just can't get a good enough look to be sure what it is, or even when you can get a good look, the bird might be a hybrid or otherwise intermediate between two species. These unidentified birds are sometimes called "spuhs." This comes from the abbreviation "sp." for "species," as it was originally used with latin names. For example, "Buteo sp." indicates a hawk that is known to be in the genus Buteo, but it is uncertain which species it is.

Usually unidentified birds are just dismissed - there are plenty more birds that can be identified with certainty. However, when you're doing a listing project like this, it can be important to count every bird. So I've decided to articulate my policy for dealing with spuhs here. I will include spuhs in my species total until I see another bird that could possibly be the same species as the unidentified bird. For example, on the 19th of January I saw a bird that I know certainly was a jay, but I didn't see it well enough to be 100% certain which species. If by the end of the year, I have seen 199 identified species (none of which are jays) and one unidentified jay, then this species will count as number 200. However, as soon as I see another jay that I CAN identify, this spuh disappears from the list because there is a chance that the two birds were of the same species. Therefore, as of today I have seen 83 species: the 81 species listed to the right, plus a jay sp. and a grackle sp. (Spuhs will not be listed in my species list while the list is in progress.) I expect I will be able to find at least one identifiable jay and at least one identifiable grackle, so these uncertain IDs will most likely be absorbed into other, more certain ones by the end of the year.

Cleaning up

Today I took a short trip in the morning and a short trip in the evening to try to see some of the birds that I missed on the January 1st trip. The first stop was the Logan Fish Hatchery, where Mo Correll and Craig Fosdick joined me in trying to find the Short-billed Dowitcher that had been reported there. I thought I had seen it on the 1st, but I wasn't sure enough to count it. This morning the air was bitterly cold, about 1 degree F, and the warm springs where the dowitcher had been seen were steaming so intensely this morning that it made it hard to see the birds before we spooked them. Eventually we decided that we had either spooked the dowitcher or that it wasn't there to begin with. Just as we were turning to return to the car, I saw two grackles fly over, which Mo and Craig also saw. It was a nice consolation prize for missing the dowitcher! Unfortunately, we could not be 100% confident in which species of grackle these were, common or great-tailed, so for now they will not be added to my list.

In the evening, I tried yet again for the dowitcher, and I was finally successful. I even got some poor digiscoped photos to show for it!

I had another half hour or so left of daylight, so I decided to try to find a Short-eared Owl at the Logan Airport. I not only found the owl in the last few minutes of daylight, but I also saw my first Cooper's Hawk of the year on my way there.