063019 Muskogee Edition, Birding Today

https://www.muskogeephoenix.com/news/lifestyles/birding-today-watch-for-shorebirds-in-late-summer/article_0cf93d46-e6fb-5203-aa3c-93a0669e5c80.html

Oklahoma Migratory Species Profile: American Golden-Plover

A little smaller than the Black-bellied Plover with a small head and bill, the American Golden-Plover is a High Boreal Forest breeder.

There is a strong male bias to certain breeding territory, to which they will return for many years.

Often migrating with American Avocets and the Back-bellied Plover in the spring, its route of migration is circular, whereby they will return to the breeding grounds by a mainland route.  In the fall, it will fly offshore from the east coast of North America right to its wintering ground in central and southern South America.  However, with juveniles, it is often a different story.

These medium-sized plovers are long-distance migrants travelling between the tundra of Alaska and Canada to as far south as Brazil and Argentina for the winter months.  Not only does it have the largest breeding range of any American bird, they can fly up to 20,000 miles every year, going nonstop over the Atlantic Ocean for as much as 3500 miles.  Less than half a pound, they are the speediest flying shorebird reaching speeds of 60 mph.  In order to survive these grueling flights, they may keep seeds in their digestive tract, much like the effects of timed-release vitamins.

                                                    American Golden-Plover (Right)
                                                          Boomer Lake Park, 2013

Primaries extend well beyond the tail, and they sport a stockier appearance.  Their foraging behavior is a stop-start-run behavior, and then it will relocate elsewhere.  Their unusual capture of prey is with just a single stab of the bill.

Juveniles migrate after the adults, when they come through the Great Plains in late summer to early fall.  Some of the earlier migrating adults will arrive in their southern haunts before the juveniles have even left the tundra.

Expect these birds coming through the Great Plains in the next week to ten days.

Oklahoma Migratory Species Profile: Piping Plover

Since 1957 the Piping Plover has been visiting Oklahoma.  Its first eBird recorded sighting was at Moffett Bottoms in Sequoyah County.  Expanding over the years, this led to multiple reports in 2018, including its first appearance at Meridian Technology Ponds on 04-25-18 in Stillwater.  Its first occurence on The Panhandle was in 1995 at Optima Reservoir.

Since there is a large breeding cluster just north of Oklahoma and into the Boreal Forest area, it is not unusual that the most northern birds make a short pit stop in various locations within Oklahoma.   Migration begins in August for some of the plovers, and by mid-September, most of them are in their winter range, which is the Caribbean, the south Atlantic coast, and the Gulf of Mexico.

In the 1900s, this little shorebird suffered the effects of the millinery trade.  Then in the 1940s, the species rebounded, only to be knocked down again after World War II.  Fortunately for many species, the Migratory Treaty Bird Act of 1918, and the subsequent Endangered Species Act of 1986 afforded them a much better chance on the east coast.



                           Piping Plover
                      wildlife.ohiodnr.gov

This wee plover was named for its most plaintive whistle, sharing a beach habitat with the Least Tern, Wilson's Plover, and the Black Skimmer.  Nesting in scrapes like many shorebirds, the adult modus operandi is the broken wing display to avert danger to themselves.  Plover chicks resemble cotton balls on legs, and have also been compared to wind-up toys.

The only way to tell the adult male from he female is the fact that he has a thicker chest band than the female during breeding season.  They blend very well with sandy beaches, so if the bird is on the move, it will sooner be observed than the stationary example.