Thanks to everyone who answered the quiz through the comments section, or messaged me privately! The highest score went to my smart and attractive girlfriend Jennifer, who was the only person to figure out the secret bonus question. (What the heck is Googolplexennial?)
Well, let's break it down: (from wikipedia):
- 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
So a Googolplex is:
A googolplex is the number 10googol, i.e. 
.
.n 1938, Edward Kasner's nine-year-old nephew, Milton Sirotta, coined the term googol, then proposed the further term googolplex to be "one, followed by writing zeroes until you get tired". Kasner decided to adopt a more formal definition "because different people get tired at different times and it would never do to have Carnera be a better mathematician than Dr. Einstein, simply because he had more endurance and could write for longer".[1] It thus became standardized to .
.and "ennial" is just my own addition to signify years. So once added all together, it roughly means I don't plan on doing photo quizzes on the blog very often! And if you're wondering, it's roughly where google got it's name from (their headquarters is called the Googleplex)
--------- so, onto the birds!
Quiz bird #1 - part of the reason I did the quiz was becuase I knew I had some tough photos, and apparently this one was the hardest, since no one went with the correct answer of Northern Goshawk... Size is really tough to tell from photos, but maybe there was some clues in there that this was just a bit too big for SSHA? (Hard to say.. I just provide the photos)..
Being a tiny bird, juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawks have tiny markings. A good clue for this bird is the circular "blotches" on the underside. Here's a sample of a Juv SSHA with tiny little streaks:
(click)Coopers Hawk (Juv's) have a different arrangement of streaks, being lighter and concetrated higher on the breast. Once you get down towards their feet, they can be almost clean whitish! See:
Juv Broad-winged Hawk has more patterning to it's underside markings, (and I don't have a good photo handy), but it's not quite like the quiz bird.....
This next bird didn't give too many people trouble, but was still fun for the quiz. The correct answer was Vesper Sparrow - in fine fall plumage. The brown/buff colour, breast streaking, white eye ring and white outer tail feathers (somewhat visible) all clinch the ID.
It's a fun species, because (i think) it only molts once a year..(attains breeding plumage through wear) so they look pretty different in the fall, compared to when we often see them first arrive in April.
(note the loss of buff, and increase in the shoulder patch) - taken in early May
The final quiz photo was on a streak similar to the goshawk, until the last few entries nailed it as a juvie Little Gull
I had hopes it would snag some people as a possible shorebird, given the terrible viewing angle, and it did! But yes it's actually a small gull.
Adult small gulls are generally eliminated by the black visible on the tail. Juv Sabine's Gull have such a striking upper wing pattern, that it really is (and would be) noticeable on the underside of the winds as well.
Juv Black-headed Gull will show more dark markings on the underside of the primaries (and maybe elsewhere too) than our quiz bird:
Along with Bonaparte's Gull, which will shows less ,but probably wouldn't be as clean whitish on the underside of the wings as our bird. (BOGU also shows more black on the tips of the secondaries than most LIGU). Structure looks really good for Little Gull (in my experience), even with the terrible photo. They often give the impression of being really tiny on the back end, with a really short and squared tail.
Hope the quiz was fun! (even for you cheaters! *cough* Josh *cough* )
(Josh didn't actually cheat)
I was going to guess Hawk, Sparrow, Seagull... Good quiz.
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