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
After the breeding season, they keep very quiet and retired, like
the rest of the waders, and the adults appear to slip quietly away
without collecting into flocks, as soon as the young are able to
take care of themselves. As soon as the young have assumed the
complete fall plumage, that is about the 10th of August, they
gather in large flocks with the other young waders, especially
about the small ponds on the high land below Cape Smythe, and stay
for several days before they take their departure for the South.
Stray birds remain as late as the first week of September.
On the New England coast the pectoral is both an early and a late
migrant; a few adults sometimes appear in July and more come in August;
but the main flight, mostly young birds, comes in September and October;
they are often abundant in the latter month and I have seen them as late
as October 31. When with us it is seldom seen on the sandy flats or
beaches, but frequents the wet, fresh and salt meadows, preferably where
the grass has been cut and which after a rain are covered with shallow
pools of water. Here and along the margins of marshy creeks are its
favorite feeding grounds. It does not decoy well and is no longer
considered a game bird, but it has been popular with sportsmen for its
gamy qualities and for the excellence of its flesh.
There is a marked southeastward trend in the fall migration of this
species; from its breeding grounds in northern Alaska and northeastern
Siberia its main flight seems to be towards the Atlantic coast of the
United States; it is not abundant and rather irregular on the Pacific
coast south of Alaska; it is common at times in the interior of Canada
and usually abundant in New England. It occasionally occurs in enormous
numbers in Bermuda and seems to be always rare in Florida; these facts
would seem to indicate an ocean route to South America.
_Winter._--The winter home of the pectoral sandpiper is in southern
South America. Arthur H. Holland (1891) says that in the Argentine
Republic, it is "usually found in marshy land with long water weeds
abounding, frequenting the same spot for weeks together." Between
September and March 26, Doctor Wetmore (1926) recorded it as "fairly
common" at various places in Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. It
evidently spends over half the year in its winter home and makes very
rapid flights to and from its Arctic breeding grounds, where it makes a
short visit of about two months.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Northeastern Siberia, and North and South America; accidental
in the Hawaiian Islands and the British Isles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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