Least Sandpiper from Egg to Adult

Inspired by a post by Corey on 10,000 Birds, I decided to put together a post of Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla) showing all stages in development, from egg, to chick, to fledgling, to juvenile, to adult. All of these pictures were taken while I was helping with research on Hudsonian Godwits in Churchill, MB.

Adult Least Sandpiper on territory in Churchill Manitoba.

As with many other breeding shorebirds in Churchill, Least Sandpipers on the breeding grounds behave very differently than how most of us think of them. This adult Least Sandpiper is sitting atop a small larch as it yells at me, trying to get me away from its nest.

Adult Least Sandpiper sitting on its nest. Their cryptic plumage and their nest placement provides good concealment from predators.

Least Sandpiper nest. A full clutch typically consists of four eggs. Note my foot in the corner of the lower picture for a sense of scale... they are very tiny nests. Nests tend to be quite well concealed under a small clump of sedge or a small shrub (usually birch).

Recently hatched Least Sandpiper chicks.

Least Sandpiper at fledging. This individual was able to fly about 10 feet at at time. Note the juvenile-type plumage of the back and coverts, but the retained fuzzy head and short primaries. In addition, this bird was still making "peeping" noises and an adult was still nearby.

This recently fledged Least Sandpiper was really neat, because in all aspects it looked like an average juvenile Least Sandpiper, except it still retained some down on the head. This bird was fully capable of flying, and had the normal call of Least Sandpipers.

After fledging completely, and losing all of their fluffiness, juvenile Least Sandpipers begin to move. This juvenile Least Sandpiper was photographed at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (photo by Corey Finger)

The Hudsonian Godwits of Churchill

After all of the posts about Churchill that I've written, I realized that I've written very little about the bird that has taken me here for the past two summers: the Hudsonian Godwit, Limosa haemastica. The Hudsonian Godwit is a mid to large sized shorebird, and is a well known long-distance migrant. The godwits' breeding distribution is still not entirely understood, but is known to be found in isolated pockets across the sub-arctic and arctic of Canada and Alaska. They typically breed in fens, bogs, and marshes with abundant sedge cover as well as a few trees (such as Larch, Larix laricina and spruces, Picea sp.) and shrubs (in Churchill, mostly Dwarf Birch, Betula glandulosa). Hudsonian Godwits are particularly famous for their long-distance migration, which takes the birds from Churchill first to staging grounds around James Bay. From there, many godwits make a direct flight from James Bay south to South America, perhaps stopping off for a day or two somewhere in the Amazon before finally making it to the southern coast of Argentina and Tierra del Fuego. Godwits that breed in Alaska winter mostly on the island of Chiloe. On the northward journey, godwits again make very long flights, some flying all the way from Argentina to Texas and Nebraska before stopping.

In Churchill, godwits typically return to the area sometime between May 20 and May 25, however there can be variation in this depending on local conditions. For example, the first godwits in 2009 did not show up until June 3, and even then were restricted to a limited number of locations due to snow conditions. In a typical year, after the birds arrive, males usually spend almost a week establishing territories and displaying. Its during this period when we start walking through the breeding grounds, looking for returning birds from previous years, and getting an idea of where territories are so we know where to look for nests.

Upon arrival, godwits will hang around, perhaps going to areas where they will later breed. In these pictures, a female Hudsonian Godwit is loafing around the Fen with a Short-billed Dowitcher

In addition to inspecting the breeding grounds, godwits also spend a lot of time feeding when they first arrive. Often they will feed in areas close to their future territories. This male, feeding in a roadside pool, later nested about 300 meters away in the marsh.

During the first week or so after arrival, male godwits spend a lot of time displaying and setting up territories. This male, banded 2 years ago is seen here displaying in the top of a tree. The display flight of godwits consist of a slow, "butterfly-like" flight over their territories, calling consistently "god-wit, god-wit, god-wit."

Beginning sometime during the first week of June, godwits will begin nesting. During the summer of 2008, the first nest was found June 5, while this year, the first nest was found June 8. In any particular year, most nesting is fairly synchronous, and within about a week, most birds that are nesting will be on eggs. Incubation of eggs does not begin full time until a full clutch (usually of 4) is laid, although males will incubate sporadically even when two eggs are laid. Males incubate for the entire day after the last egg is laid, while females feed. After that first day, males and females share incubation tasks, with females typically incubating during the day, and males incubating at night (although there is considerable variation in this schedule).

A Hudsonian Godwit nest with a full clutch of 4 eggs. While 4 eggs is the maximum clutch size, and also the most typical, complete clutches of 3, and occasionally 2 eggs are also laid. If a godwit renests after losing the eggs to a predator, the replacement clutch is more frequently smaller.

Female Hudsonian Godwit incubating eggs. Godwits are very reluctant to flush from their nest, which can make nests particularly difficult to find. Their cryptic coloration allows them to hide incredibly well among the sedges.

Female godwit sitting very tight on her nest.

After about 17 or so days of incubation, the eggs begin to get star cracks, which are the first signs of hatching. The appearance of star cracks usually indicate that the eggs are within 3 or 4 days of hatch. The day before hatch, the chicks begin to pip the eggs, making small holes in the wider end of the egg. Hatching of all the eggs occurs on the same day, although there can be several hours delay between the first and last chick hatching. Oftentimes, the first chicks to hatch will disperse from the nest site by the time the last chick hatches. During this entire period, both adults stay very close to the nest, and incubating birds sit very tight on the nest, and are very reluctant to flush from the nest. Since chicks leave the nest only a couple of hours after hatch, it is very important for us to get to the nest at hatch if we want to band all the chicks. Otherwise, it can be very, very difficult to find all of the chicks of a brood once they have dispersed.

A godwit nest that is getting very close to hatching. If you look closely, all the eggs have fine "star-cracks" around the wide end of the egg.

A detail of "star-cracks" on an egg.

A godwit chick in the final stages of hatching. This particular chick hatched right in front of us while we were banding his siblings, which had already hatched. It was quite incredible.

Recently hatched godwit chick, this bird is still not completely dry.

Hudsonian Godwit chick that is less than one day old. It's difficult to see, but this chick has a tiny radio transmitter on his back, which we use to track them as they grow. This allows us to determine what habitats they use to feed in, how far they wander, and also check survival.

When chicks are very young, the parent godwits are very aggressive. This pair was constantly attacking us and yelling at us while we were banding their newly hatched chicks. Notice the white flags on the legs of each of these birds, as well as a plastic color band beneath the flag. The orange color band on the male indicates that he was first banded in 2009, while the blue color band indicates this female was banded this year. Also note the brightness of this female, compared with the female pictured in the first 2 pictures of the post.

Male Hudsonian Godwit brooding his recently hatched chicks while we finish banding the last of the brood.

After hatch, chicks and adults wander very far from the original territory. Just three days after hatching, we tracked one family over 2 kilometers from the original nest site. Parents stay with the chicks until they can fly, which is about 24 days after hatching. Females may leave before the chicks are fledged, but males stay with the chicks. Parents will defend their chicks vigorously against predators, and will brood them for the first several days after hatching, but do not feed them.

A godwit chick that is about 2 weeks old. Notice the wing feathers which are in pin, and the back feathers which have come in on this bird.

A 3-week old godwit chick. Notice the wing feathers are growing in nicely, and have already started breaking out of their sheaths. This is likely the latest age that we can capture godwit chicks, since after this they run too fast.

A 3-week old godwit chick running away from us after we banded it. In another 5 days, this godwit chick will be able to fly. At 26 days after hatching, godwit chicks are able to fledge. It is at this point when the adults leave the chicks.

After fledging at about 26 days after hatch, godwit chicks are completely on their own. Adult birds leave the chicks once they have fledged. Adults will continue to the staging grounds around James Bay, and the chicks will remain around Churchill for a little while longer before continuing to James Bay. If all goes well, 2 years from now, we will see "EC" return to Churchill. Young birds will spend their first "summer" on the non-breeding grounds in South America.

To see pictures of Hudsonian Godwits on their winter grounds in South America, see my posts from Chile, where I was able to see and catch some godwits.

Phalaroping Around Town

June 3, 2009: This date marked the first arrival of many shorebird species, including our first Hudsonian Godwits. However, even with the arrival of these birds, almost all of the available nesting habitat remained under snow, and it was clear that it would remain that way for a while yet. It didn’t matter too much to me (yet) however, because I was ecstatic to see my first godwits in breeding plumage (what beautiful birds!). After the first push of shorebirds into the area, things slowed down again for a couple of days.

However, some of the strange weather patterns that delayed the return of summer also brought some very special birds into Churchill. For about a week, we were distracted by many Red Phalaropes that were hanging around some of the small patches of water that were open around Churchill. Red Phalaropes are uncommon around the area, and are not seen every year. So, when we saw 20+ over the course of the week, we were thrilled. Not only did we see them, but these phalaropes had no fear of us, and were foraging within feet of us. Here are some of the many pictures I took of the birds:

Red Phalaropes (all female), from various places around Churchill. I particularly like the above image, which shows a bird dunking underwater, in pursuit of some tasty morsel

Tom and Jay photograph the Red Phalaropes that swam and foraged feet in front of us.

I was looking almost straight down on this bird, only 6-7 feet away. I particularly like it because you can see their awesome lobed feet

Female Red-necked Phalarope. In the top image, you can make out a food particle in its beak, which it has just captured using capillary action (you can see the water still being drawn into its bill)

All of our phalarope photographing bored Brad, so he took to wandering down the road. On his walk, he found two additional Red Phalaropes.

Red Phalarope feeding, spinning in the water to churn up small aquatic invertebrates. You can see the spirals in the water that the phalarope creates by spinning!

The Ivory Colored Frost Lover

Saturday, 20-Feb-2010: Pat Jones, birder from Long Island, discovers an adult Ivory Gull on Lake Champlain, on the Vermont side, while searching the area for a previously reported Northern Hawk Owl. During his trip to the northern reaches of New York, Pat Jones also found an adult male Tufted Duck, in addition to the continuing Northern Hawk Owl, making for an incredible northern New York rarities trifecta.

As the reports of the Ivory Gull continued through the following week, schemes began to form for a trip to the northeast corner of New York State. A major winter storm that hit Ithaca Thursday night almost thwarted our attempt. Not wanting a repeat of our first Ivory Gull chase in January of 2009 where we drove through the middle of a blizzard, we watched the weather intently. However, the storm passed, and the roads were cleared by midday on Friday.

By Friday afternoon, plans were made to leave Ithaca at 3:30 the following morning. A second group of Ithaca birders left earlier that day, and were able to track down the gull on Friday afternoon.

Now, I was going out to dinner with friends the night before, and didn’t get back until late, so I had the bright idea of not sleeping before leaving. That, in the long run, hurt, but, all went well enough. After an early start, Tom, Carolyn and I were on our way, first to pick up Brad, and then to Ausable Point, first to track down the Tufted Duck. Arriving at Ausable Point around 9 AM, we quickly saw the Tufted Duck, pointed out to us by our fellow Ithacans who had found it earlier in the day. Now, I can understand that part of the appeal of Tufted Ducks is that they are a rare bird for us U.S. birders, but I really do enjoy watching them. Their tuft is actually quite loose, and flops around a lot as they swim, turn their head, and dive. When resurfacing, their tuft, initially plastered to their head with water, suddenly springs back out.

My poor attempt at digiscoping the Tufted Duck. In this picture, it is pretty close to center and sleeping. You can pick it out by its black back and clean white sides

After we finished watching the Tufted Duck, we moved on to the Ivory Gull. As soon as we arrived, the dozen or so birders that were already gathered on the jetty pointed out the bird to us. At first, the bird remained quite distant on the ice for quite a long period of time, seemingly content with bathing, preening, sleeping, and pooping. We waited on that break wall for a good 4 hours, with intermittent snow squalls making our vigil particularly painful. But, we were rewarded for our patience, as the bird eventually got hungry, and came into a chicken carcass that was on the ice near the jetty. It fed on the chicken for nearly 45 minutes while we just stared in amazement at its beauty.

Views from the Rouses Point jetty, where we spent close to five hours watching the Ivory Gull. Note the ice fishermen on the ice in the middle picture.

Sitting through a brief snow squall while watching the Ivory Gull (photo by Carolyn Sedgwick)

The Ivory Gull begins to close in on some tasty chicken

When not feasting on this chicken, this Ivory Gull would pick at fish that the ice fishermen had left out for it

Adult Ivory Gull, Rouses Point, NY.

Ivory Gull going for a stroll on the ice after gorging on chicken

After we had our fill of the Ivory Gull (not that I can ever tire of that bird), we moved onto the Northern Hawk Owl, which had been spotted earlier in the afternoon after a two-day hiatus, for our final twitch of the day. Again, we were not disappointed, as the bird sat on the side of the road, and at one point caught a vole, which it later cached somewhere. Unfortunately, by that time of day, the light was poor, and my camera refused to cooperate.

Northern Hawk Owl, Champlain, NY.

Probably one of my best birding days in New York state (from a rarities perspective), this day was tempered by the thought that this adult Ivory Gull may only be here due to changes in its northern realm. Over the past two winters, an unprecedented number of Ivory Gulls (mostly adult birds, no less) have shown up on the East Coast, one making it as far south as Georgia (roughly 10 birds south of the Canadian border). Typically, vagrant birds are juvenile birds, but the sudden surge of adult vagrants this far south raises questions of the quality of the traditional winter grounds. In the Canadian Arctic, Ivory Gull populations appear to be declining quite rapidly (based on surveys at the breeding colonies), with climate change thought to be one of the primary factors (Mallory et al. 2008). In addition to changes due to climate, Ivory Gulls have been found to have increasing levels of pollutants in their bodies, with high amounts of mercury and other pollutants (Birdlife International 2010)

For a few more pictures of mine, plus a video of the Ivory Gull feeding, check here.

For much better pictures of the Ivory Gull and Northern Hawk Owl, check out Tom's pictures here and here.

References:

Mallory, Mark L., Iain J. Stenhouse, Grant Gilchrist, Gregory Robertson, J. Christopher Haney and Stewart D. Macdonald. 2008. Ivory Gull (Pagophila eburnea), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/175