There may also be some ambiguity about which kinds of failures are
meant to be included among the "failed breeders". The phrase does
seem to cover individuals who fail in the midst of breeding (losing
their eggs or unfledged young to predation or accident), but what
about those who fail ear
I recall birding in southern Minnesota in my youth and the date June 17
sticks in my mind as when we would get out to look for the first returning
Lesser Yellowlegs.
Based on the shorebird resource compiled by Kelling, it appears that
Black-bellied Plover is the most unusual of the recent shor
If you Google "shorebirds" + "failed breeders" you'll get a lot of
hits, and you'll see the word 'presumed' again and again. The Ontario
Field Ornithologists website offers a more cautious assessment:
"Failed Breeders: Most adult shorebirds do not stay long on the
breeding grounds after ne
The yellowlegs are early migrants in spring and could have been on territory
for 6-8 weeks already, and thus bred successfully and now on their way south.
I would consider them authentic fall migrants, and that would probably be the
case with other species that migrate north in April or early
Just speculating myself, but some two-year old Black-bellied Plovers
making their first trip back to the arctic might fail to breed
through inexperience rather than lack of energy.
-Geo
On Jun 28, 2011, at 8:42 AM, david nicosia wrote:
It is very interesting that shorebirds are already show
On my Brooktondale walk this morning, I encountered all three of our local
Mimidae within about 200 yds. on Burns Rd. The BROWN THRASHER was lustily
belting out its song in about equal 2 and 3 note segments, with even one
segment of 4 notes. The MOCKINGBIRD was blasting out the most vocal
renditi
It is very interesting that shorebirds are already showing up again and it is
late June.
Failed breeders? or did they just halt their northward migration for some
reason
(lack of fat reserves?) and will stage before continuing south again? Could
they
be very
late "spring" migrants (younge
