Part 41

Late dates of spring departure are: Argentina, Rio Negro, February 18, Mendoza, March 23, and Tucuman, April 5; Guatemala, Duenas, April 12; Louisiana, Avery Island, May 3, and Breton Island, May 13; Kentucky, Crab Orchard, May 10; Missouri, Hunnewell, May 18, and Boonville, May 31; Illinois, Addison, May 10, Rantoul, May 12, and Chicago, May 17; Indiana, Lebanon, May 23; and Michigan City, June 2; Ohio, Sandusky, May 19, Bay Point, May 23, and Wauseon, May 27; Iowa, Gilbert Station, May 16, Cedar Rapids, May 17, and Clear Lake, May 20; Wisconsin, Racine, May 4, and Madison, May 30; Minnesota, Hallock, May 20, Wilder, May 22, and Twin Valley, May 30; Texas, Corpus Christi, April 28, Gainesville, May 12, and Point Isabel, May 15; Kansas, Manhattan, May 4, Paola, May 7, and Lawrence, May 8; Nebraska, Valentine, May 25; South Dakota, Sioux Falls, May 23, White, May 25, and Harrison, May 27; North Dakota, Devils Lake, May 23, Jerusalem, June 1, and Larimore, June 7; Manitoba, Aweme, May 29, Margaret, June 3, and Shoal Lake, June 6; Saskatchewan, Indian Head, May 22, Winston, May 29, and Churchill River, June 2; Colorado, Denver, May 17; Alberta, Mundare, May 26, Sedgewick, May 30, and Fort Chipewyan, June 1; and British Columbia, between Shusicap Falls and Mabel Lake, May 29 (only spring record).

Fall migration.--Early dates of arrival in the fall are: British Columbia, Graham Island, July 27, Sumas Lake, August 19, and Chilliwack, August 26; Keewatin, Cape Eskimo, August 4; Manitoba, Aweme, August 6, Shoal Lake, August 21, and Margaret, August 27; North Dakota, Fort Berthold, September 16; South Dakota, White, September 12, great bend of the Missouri River, September 18, and Harrison, September 20; Nebraska, Nebraska City, August 3, and Ames, August 22; Minnesota, St. Vincent, August 29, and Hibbing, September 13; Ontario, Toronto, August 25, and Brighton, August 28; Michigan, Houghton, September 5, Charity Island, September 9, and Detroit, September 10; Ohio, Columbus, August 23, New Bremen, September 1, Youngstown, September 2, and Cleveland, September 8; Indiana, Waterloo, August 25, and Lebanon, September 29; Illinois, Rantoul, August 6, Glen Ellyn, September 10, and Chicago, September 13; Louisiana, mouth of Mermentau River, August 11; Mississippi, Bay St. Louis, September 26; Newfoundland, St. George Bay, August 17; Quebec, Gaspe Peninsula, August 29, and Montreal, August 31; Prince Edward Island, Malpeque, August 23; New Brunswick, Scotch Lake, August 21; Nova Scotia, Sable Island, August 20; Maine, Portland, August 12; Massachusetts, Ipswich, July 18, Plymouth, August 7, Nantucket, August 12, Cape Cod, August 15, and Monomoy Island, August 18; Rhode Island, Newport, August 12, and Kingston, August 19; Connecticut, Bridgeport, August 14, and Guilford, August 27; Rhode Island, Point Judith, August 21; New York, Montauk Light Station, August 9, Long Island City, August 12, Syracuse, August 22, and Shinnecock Bay, August 29; New Jersey, Great Bay, July 19; Cuba, Guantanamo, September 30; Lesser Antilles, Barbados, July 24, Grenada, August 24, St. Croix, August 31, and Sombrero, September 2; British Guiana, Auni, August 30; and Paraguay, Puerto Pinasco, September 6. Specimens also have been detected at Bermuda as early as July 25 (Hamilton).

Late dates of departure in the autumn are: Alaska, Nome, September 14, Baranof Island, September 18, Kenai River, October 7, and St. George Island, October 18 (there is a strong possibility that all of these Alaskan records refer to the Pacific form, Pluvialis d. fulva); British Columbia, East Kootenay, October 13, Chilliwack, October 14, and Comox, November 4; Alberta, Edmonton, September 23, delta of the Athabaska River, October 10, and Beaverhill Lake, October 22; Montana, Terry, September 23, and St. Marys Lake, October 1; Wyoming, Rock Creek, October 25; Colorado, Newcastle, October 5; Mackenzie, Manito Islands, September 14, Lower Slave River, September 29, and Fort Liard, October 5; Saskatchewan, Indian Head, October 2, and Quill Lake, October 11; Manitoba, Aweme, October 16; South Dakota, Fort Pierre, October 21, and Fort Sisseton, October 26; Nebraska, Lincoln, November 14; Kansas, Emporia, October 22, and Lawrence, October 23; Minnesota, Madison, October 22, St. Vincent, October 26, and Lanesboro, November 2; Iowa, Bronson, November 9, and Keokuk, November 9; Ontario, Toronto, October 23, Brighton, November 3, and Ottawa, November 4; Michigan, Gibraltar, October 12, Mainstee, October 17, and Detroit, November 4; Ohio, New Bremen, October 23, Painesville, October 31, and Youngstown, November 11; Indiana, English Lake, November 15; Illinois, Morgan Park, October 28, Hinsdale, November 4, and Urbana, November 8; Arkansas, Crocketts Bluff, October 22; Greenland, August 7; Franklin, Baffin Bay, September 3; Quebec, Koksoak River, September 19, Kamouraska, October 19, Montreal, November 8, and Quebec City, November 10; Nova Scotia, Sable Island, October 22, and St. Marys Bay, October 23; Maine, Lewiston, October 16, and Portland, November 15; Vermont, Wells River, October 14; Massachusetts, Monomoy Island, October 13, Plymouth, October 24, and Provincetown, November 19; Rhode Island, South Auburn, October 12, and Newport, October 24; Connecticut, West Haven, October 25, and Hartford, October 24; New York, Ithaca, October 29, Rockaway, October 30, Orient Point, November 5, and Auburn, November 8; Bahamas, Cay Lobos, October 25; Porto Rico, Anegada Lagoon, November 4; West Indies, Barbados, December 7; and Costa Rica, San Jose, December 15.

Casual records.--South of New Jersey on the Atlantic coast, this species has been recorded on a few occasions, among which are: District of Columbia, Washington, one about 1860; Virginia, Smiths Island, September 28, 1897, and Wallops Island, several occurrences between August 12 and October 3 (Warren); North Carolina, several records in spring between April 15 (Waterlily), and May 10 (Currituck), and in fall between August 29 (Martins Point), and September 29 (Churchs Island); South Carolina, Chester County, September 19, 1877, Christ Church Parish, November 27, 1912, and Charleston, November 4, 1911, and December, 1880; and Florida, Miakka, November 19, 1901, and December, 1900.

On the Pacific coast of the United States it is only casual: Washington, several records in the fall between September 9 (Port Townsend), and November 14 (Dungeness); Oregon, Netarts Bay, September 7, 1912; and California, Playa del Rey Lagoon, October 4, 1923, Santa Cruz, October 22, 1888, and possible at Coronado, January 12–20, 1908 (Torrey). Suckley reported it from the vicinity of San Francisco, and Kobbe from Menlo Park and Vallejo, but both of these records are indefinite.

The American golden plover has been obtained a few times in Great Britain, Essex, August, 1896, Perthshire, August, 1883, Leadenhall Market, fall of 1882, and Mayo County, September, 1894; while a single specimen was taken on Heligoland, December 20, 1847.

Egg Dates.--Arctic coasts of Alaska and Canada: 176 records, June 1 to July 15; 88 records, June 25 to July 2.

PLUVIALIS DOMINICA FULVA (Gmelin)

PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVER

HABITS

The Pacific golden plover is a smaller and more brightly colored subspecies of the American golden plover. It breeds on the Arctic coast of Siberia from the Yenesei River to Bering Strait and on the Bering Sea coast of Alaska. On the coast of Alaska north of Bering Strait it intergrades with the American form, and there is some evidence that it intergrades or hybridizes with the European golden plover at the western end of its range. It is known as the Asiatic or eastern golden plover by European writers. It winters from India and China to Australia, New Zealand, the Hawaiian Islands, and many other islands in the southern Pacific Ocean.

Spring.--This plover makes even more wonderful migratory flights than its American relative, for between its winter and its summer homes it travels twice each year over thousands of miles of trackless ocean; many individuals may become lost or perish, but the majority of them seem to find their way by some marvelous sense of direction. The reader is referred to an excellent paper on the migration of this plover to and from the Hawaiian Islands by Dr. Henry W. Henshaw (1910). Of the spring migration he writes:

During the last two months of their stay in the Islands both the migrating plover and turnstones get very fat, and it is probable that individuals that are not in good condition do not attempt the flight, or if they do do not survive the attempt. Toward April most plover seem to be in full breeding plumage, and I feel sure that none of the birds assuming the breeding dress remain behind unless sick or wounded. There is, however, a small contingent, both of plover and turnstones, that summer in the islands, and these appear to consist wholly of immature individuals, which, as a rule, are thin and not in good trim.

When the time to migrate comes, small parties, from a dozen or even less to flocks of 200 or more, strike boldly out to the northward, apparently without hesitancy or doubt of the result. Mr. Haswell, of Papaikou, which is on the coast about 15 miles north of Hilo, soon after daybreak during the early days of April, 1900, saw several flocks rise to a great height and, after widely circling about a few times as if to orient themselves, finally disappear in a northerly direction.

It is probable, however, that day migration is not the rule with plover and other shore birds. Apparently it is more usual for the flocks to feed by day and leave just before nightfall, as do many other birds in different parts of the world. Mr. R. C. L. Perkins states that several times he “witnessed these departures always late in the afternoon or just before dark.”

How fast the birds fly or how long it takes them to make the 2,000 mile flight across the ocean to the Aleutian Islands, we do not know. If they fly at the rate of 40 miles an hour without stopping, it would take over two days. They probably can not sustain such a prolonged effort without food. Practically all shore birds are known to alight on and arise from the water at will; so the chances are that they stop to rest on the way. They probably obtain some food from floating masses of seaweed, from the refuse left by whales, or from the numerous forms of minute animal life to be found on the surface. These birds have frequently been seen migrating at sea hundreds of miles from land, and one observer has actually seen one resting on the water. Evidence that they do so is furnished by the fact that native gunners in Trinidad, according to some notes sent to me by Julian Lyder, detect the newly arrived birds by a salty taste on the feathers.

The plover leave the Hawaiian Islands during April and May. We have no data as to when they reach the Aleutian Islands, but they arrive in the Commander Islands about the middle of May, and the first arrivals were noted at Nijni Kolymsk, Siberia, on May 30. On the Pribilof Islands they have been known to arrive as early as April 18, but they usually come about the first week in May. A. H. Twitchell tells me that he has seen them at Bethel, Alaska, as early as May 8, and Herbert W. Brandt says in his notes from Hooper Bay:

When the first small flocks of this noble Asiatic visitant appeared on Point Dall on May 16 the receding snow seemed to emphasize its golden splendor. It never became really common like its larger relative, the black-bellied plover, but numerous individuals and small bands were observed which, however, proved to be transients, for they all departed by early June. They usually associated with the gaudily attired ruddy turnstone and the combined lavish color effect of these two feathered gems was lovely indeed to behold. The Eskimos claim that, when seal hunting off Point Dall, they often encountered birds of the present species flying shoreward, so perhaps many of these long-flighted migrants moved directly from the western section of the Aleutian Islands across Bering Sea to their Alaskan summer homes.

Nesting.--Mr. Brandt has sent me the following notes on the nesting habits of this plover:

The breeding realm of the aristocratic golden plover in the Hooper Bay region is confined to a narrow belt on the mountain slopes well above brush line in the Askinuk Range. Here at an altitude of from five to eight hundred feet dwells a pair nearly every half mile, or about the same relative distance apart that the black-bellied plover families maintain between themselves on the tundra below.

The only nest of the Pacific golden plover to come under my observation was found on June 27 at an altitude of 600 feet on the Bimute spur of the Askinuk Range. On this upper mountain slope amid the scattered rocky outcrops exists a grim Arctic flora of mosses and lichens which in patches is mottled black and grayish white. On one of these velvet-like spots a little top moss is removed by the birds so as to make a slight depression in which the four beautiful eggs are placed. The lining of the nest is simply a few short unarranged stems of the reindeer moss that no doubt grew on the site. The nesting cavity is 4 inches in diameter and only half an inch in depth, thus making it notable as perhaps the most meager of the limicoline abodes we found. The parti-colored eggs and their environs blend as one in coloration, so, even in that jaeger-ridden land, they enjoy unusual protective security. The male bird alone was present during my stay in the vicinity of his abiding place and failed to exhibit either the extreme timidity or the agitation so characteristic of the black-bellied plover.

Henry Seebohm (1901) gives the following account of finding a nest near the banks of the Yenesei River in Siberia:

On the top of the bank I found myself on the real tundra. Not a trace of a pine tree was visible, and the birches rarely exceeded 12 inches in height. There was less grass, more moss and lichen, and the ground was covered with patches of yellow mud or clay, in which were a few small stones, that were apparently too barren for even moss or lichen to grow upon. The tundra was hilly, with lakes, swamps, and bogs in the wide valleys and plains. As soon as I reached the flat bogs I heard the plaintive cry of a plover, and presently caught sight of two birds. The male was very conspicuous, but all my attempts to follow the female with my glass, in order to trace her to the nest, proved ineffectual; she was too nearly the color of the ground, and the herbage was too high. Feeling convinced that I was within 30 paces of the nest, I shot the male, and commenced a diligent search. The bird proved to be the Asiatic golden plover, with gray axillaries, and I determined to devote at least an hour looking for the nest. By a wonderful piece of good fortune I found it, with four eggs, in less than five minutes. It was merely a hollow in the ground upon a piece of turfy land, overgrown with moss and lichen, and was lined with broken stalks of reindeer moss. The eggs more resembled those of the golden than those of the grey plover, but were smaller than either.

Miss Maud D. Haviland (1915a) had considerable experience with this plover on the Yenesei and took some excellent photographs of it; she writes:

I first saw a few birds at Dudinka, where they were probably on migration, and afterwards the species was common all the way down to Golchika. Each pair occupied perhaps 2 furlongs of tundra. I should think that every acre of moss and lichen from the Yenesei to the Lena in summer is thus parceled out. Your progress across the tundra in July is heralded and attended by a chorus of plaintive cries. Both birds meet you a quarter of a mile from the nest and never leave you until you are at the boundaries of their own territory, and they can safely hand you over to their next neighbors for espionage. Covert, of course, there is none--but it is needless to say more. The suspiciousness and patience of the golden plover are the same all the world over; and I will not dwell upon them to those who themselves have no doubt walked vainly for half a day about the bird’s breeding grounds in this country and listened to its maddening but at the same time most musical protests.

The first nest was found on July 4. It was a shallow depression, lined with dry lichen haulms on a slope of the tundra. The bird, which must, I think, either have been deaf or else exceedingly stupid, did not move until I was well over the hill and within 60 yards of her, when she jumped up and feigned a broken wing.

Eggs.--The eggs are similar to those of the American golden plover; the ground colors average paler. In three sets they run from “light buff” to “cream color”; Mr. Brandt’s eggs run from “ivory yellow” to “vinaceous buff”; and in two eggs figured by Mr. Poynting (1895) the ground colors are in shades of “olive buff.” Mr. Brandt says in his notes:

The eggs of this bird are no doubt subject to much variation for the two sets are very different. On one the surface markings are distinct and elongated longitudinally while on the other clutch large blotches almost cover the larger end. These spots are brownish black to black where the pigment is rich, but when occasionally it is thin, as on a few outlying edges, it becomes brick red. Pursuant to the usual rule with many of the boldly marked eggs of the shore birds the underlying spots are few and ill defined. These are in lavender tones from pale mouse gray to grayish lavender.