Jeffco Whimbrel, M. Godwit etc.

[Frank Farrell]

I just came across a whimbrel, a marbled godwit and 10 Willets at the end of the Marina sandspit at Chatfield S P. All flew, willets have returned. Maybe others will also.
Frank Farrell
Morrison, CO

[Mitchell Bailey]

Joey Negreann and I also saw a handful of willets at Cherry Creek State Park along with two or more least sandpipers and a western sandpiper. Feels like just yesterday shorebirds were moving north.

Mitchell Bailey
Arapahoe County

[Joe Roller]

Although it's hard to be sure, my guess is that those juicy shorebirds were

moving SOUTH, having failed at nesting up north somehow. I presume they were

adults, but let us know if they were younger, please.

Joe Roller, Denver

"Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like bananas".

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[Allison Hilf]

There have been some satellite tagged shorebirds heading south for a few weeks.  Just on schedule.   As Joe mentioned, they are often birds that failed to nest   Because the time frame for nesting in much of their preferred arctic habitat is very short, if a first nest fails the adults often leave; sometimes they attempt a second brood and the female will stay and try to raise the young on her own.   Those males seem to take care of themselves!!  Just kidding, it is survival of the fittest out there in the bird world despite sex.    

Allison Hilf

Aurora, CO

On Jul 10, 2020, at 8:40 AM, Joe Roller <jrol...@gmail.com> wrote:

.

[Scott Somershoe]

I'll just add a couple notes on these "early" shorebirds.  They are right on time, like others have noted.  The summer solstice is when southbound birds start arriving (yup, June 21 or so). There are always a few birds where you're not sure if they are going south or just didn't go to the arctic or what their direction/status is.  Anyway, as a crazy example, I helped with the Georgia Breeding Bird Atlas in summer 2000 and had a Greater Yellowlegs on Cumberland Island about 24 June (can't find exact date at the moment, but it was just after the 22nd, which I distinctly remember for a couple reasons). 

Willets, Marbled Godwits, and other prairie breeders discussed in this thread definitely fail and bail (as I say), much like arctic breeders.  When I run my BBS routes in the prairies of north central Montana usually between 7-13 June, I'll see groups of 60+ Marbled Godwits.  They likely all had failed nests or didn't nest. I've still never seen a godwit chick, which is concerning since I see young of everything else when I'm stomping around the prairie for a week or more.  I'm sure I've been near some as if you're anywhere near a nest or young, they circle and attack you constantly, sometimes following you for over a mile. This does provide some great photo opps though!

In the case of Long-billed Curlews, several satellite tagged females from Idaho have been on their winter sites in southern Calif for nearly 3 weeks!  A couple eastern WY breeders passed through CO already and are in far south Texas and in northern Mexico just south of Brownsville, TX.  Another WY breeder is down in the southern end of the Chihuahuan desert in central Mexico!

LB Curlew females bolt and leave the males with parental duty! Adult females get into little groups and head out together. However males arrive back on breeding grounds first.

I've probably shared this page before, here's info on tagged curlews.  This is a great organization and partnership. IBO has done a fantastic job on curlew work and outreach in Idaho where they had a lot of tagged curlews shot.

https://www.curlewcrew.com/  

Scott Somershoe

Littleton CO

Co-Author of Birds of Tennessee: A New Annotated Checklist

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[The "Nunn Guy"]

Hi Scott

Know of an aggregator website that has all project maps of all tagged bird species to view real-time various species locations?

Thanks, Gary Lefko, Nunn

http://www.friendsofthepawneegrassland.org

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/birds-and-more-of-the-pawnee-national-grassland

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[Scott Somershoe]

This is not fully comprehensive but it covers a lot. There's another place where a lot of tracking projects are collated but I can't remember what it is at the moment.  It's Friday afternoon :) 

http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/ 

 

Scott Somershoe

Littleton CO

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[Dave Cameron]

This raises a question about migration 'triggers,' so I'll ask it:

I've read in the past that what drives Northbound migrants to start migrating is not the weather, which is too variable, but the number of hours of daylight.  That was asserted as the birds' sense of calendar, and it makes perfect sense.

BUT... if the summer solstice in the Arctic is when they are due to start their Southbound return, how on earth do they know when it is?

Dave Cameron

Denver