03 October 2010

St. George Shorebirds

During my stay on St. George Island, I found only two species of shorebirds breeding there - Rock Sandpipers and Semi-palmated Plovers. The Rock Sandpipers on the Pribilof Islands are considered a separate sub-species because of their distinctly different plumage patterns. They were quite abundant in the upland areas but seemed to do much of their feeding along the rocky shorelines. Breeding Semi-palmated Plovers were not nearly as abundant and the few juveniles that I found were near shallow lakes.But there were a number of other species that stopped on St. George during their migration south. Red Phalaropes were the most abundant migrants I encountered. Earlier in my stay, the individuals I saw were still mostly in their breeding plumage. Later into August, many of the birds were molting into their winter plumage, which was very similar to that of the juveniles. One day on the north shore of St. George, flocks of this species numbered in the tens of thousands, feeding near the kelp beds off shore. A single Sanderling was noted on Zapadni Beach on a number of occasions. Small groups of Pacific Golden Plovers were first sighted on 7 August, the same date they were seen by a friend the previous year. Western Sandpipers were observed on a number of occasions, mostly by a small wetland along the airport runway. Least Sandpipers were also found in that location plus at a larger shallow lake on the north side of the island. Ruddy Turnstones were the most abundant of the migratory shorebirds and were rather easily found along rocky shorelines and Zapadni Beach. Frequently, a few Wandering Tatlers could be found near the groups of Rock Sandpipers and Turnstones along the shorelines. One of the many reasons I wanted to spend time on St. George Island was the possibility of finding some rare birds, especially shorebirds, that strayed there from Asian populations. While I was not lucky enough to find many of these strays, mainly because of the time frame I was present, that fact certainly did not detract from the great birding and photography opportunities I experienced while there.

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