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Posted by Carlos Sanchez on 17:09:10 07/13/09
In Reply to: Migrants are on their way! posted by Angel & Mariel
It is important to keep in perspective that the Arctic is extremely large and the freezes that occurred in one region do not necessarily mean that all shorebirds had a horrible year -- that is like saying a rainy summer in Florida must correlate to a rainy summer in Idaho. According to Jean Iron, "The Arctic is huge; it is 3500 km from southern James Bay (subarctic) to northern Ellesmere Island. Most shorebirds have large breeding ranges and even in late years many birds breed successfully and rarely does the entire Arctic experience the same climatic conditions. We checked with northern researchers and summarized their comments below. Shorebird nesting in 2009 is poor in some regions but normal to good elsewhere."
Hopefully, the poor nesting season this summer in some regions of the Arctic are simply part of a natural cycle and not a long term trend. That said, I had several dozen Ruddy Turnstones out at the end of Black Point Park on July 10th -- they are definitely arriving and, by all accounts, Arctic breeders are beginning to move right on time.
Carlos
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