Life histories of North American shore birds, Part 1 (of 2)Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Science
Life histories of North American shore birds, Part 1 (of 2)
Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Birds -- Behavior; Shore birds -- North America
_Voice._--Except on its breeding grounds, we considered the Aleutian
sandpiper a very quiet and silent bird. Its twittering flight song is a
part of the nuptial ceremony, and it was only on its nesting grounds
that we heard the loud, musical, flutelike, whistling notes so
suggestive of the melodious calls of the upland plover. Doctor Nelson
(1887) describes what may be the same notes, as follows:
While on the wing it uttered a rather low but clear and musical
_tweo-tweo-tweo_. When feeding it had a note something like a call
of the _Colaptes auratus_, and which may be represented by the
syllables _clu-clu-clu_.
Mr. Clark (1910) also says:
The cry is loud and clear, bearing a striking resemblance to the
call of the flicker.
_Field marks._--In winter the Aleutian sandpiper might easily be
mistaken for a purple sandpiper, which it closely resembles in
appearance, haunts, and behavior, but the winter ranges of the two
species are widely separated. From the Pribilof sandpiper it differs in
being decidedly smaller, and in summer it is much darker, with less
rufous above and more black below.
_Fall._--The Aleutian sandpiper withdraws in the fall from the northern
portions of its breeding range in Alaska and Siberia, and it may be that
the birds which breed farthest north are the ones which migrate farthest
south to spend the winter, for the species is resident throughout the
year in the Aleutian Islands. In the Norton Sound region it evidently
occurs only as a migrant from northern Alaska and Siberia. Doctor Nelson
(1887) says:
Early in August, however, I was pleased to find it abundant in
parties of from five to thirty or forty about outlying islets and
along rugged portions of the shore. During each of the four
succeeding seasons the same experience was repeated, and the last
of July or first of August I was certain to find the numbers of
them in the situations mentioned, where earlier in the season not
one was to be found. They always remained until the middle of
October, when the beaches became covered with ice and they were
forced to seek a milder climate. The 1st of October, as the first
snowstorms begin, these birds desert the more exposed islets and
beaches for the inner bays and sandy beaches, where their habits
are like those of other sandpipers in similar situations.
_Winter._--This hardy sandpiper is well known to winter regularly and
abundantly in the Aleutian and Commander Islands. According to notes
received from D. E. Brown, it reaches the coast of Washington as early
as October 1, where it spends the winter in Grays Harbor and Jefferson
Counties and on the outer islands. Carl Lien's notes, from Destruction
Island, give it as a "common winter resident. A flock of probably 50
spend the winter. Nearly always found in company with turnstones and
surfbirds, and together with these birds confine themselves entirely to
the reefs."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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