Part 65

Above mottled black and “cream buff,” the black strongly predominating. Line from base of bill extending over and to the center of the eye “cream buff.” Distinct loral streak of black from base of bill to eye. (Some specimens also have below this loral stripe a black spot at base of lower mandible). Lower breast, abdomen and a very small area on chin clear white. Upper throat “cream buff.” Neck and upper breast mixed black and “cream buff,” but without distinct mottling. Bill dark horn, iris brown, legs and feet light horn with fleshy tint. Compared with absolutely identified newly hatched chicks of A. i. morinella, downy young of this species have a much darker appearance. On the upper parts the buffy colors are more in the form of specklings, while in morinella these colors are more blotch-like. Melanocephala also has a very distinct dark band across the chest, while in the other species this band is very faintly indicated.

In fresh juvenal plumage, in July, the head, neck, chest, back, scapulars and wing coverts are dull, blackish brown, or “sepia,” with an olive gloss; the feathers of the mantle are narrowly edged with “pinkish buff”; the scapulars are more broadly edged with the same; the median wing coverts are tipped and their white edges are tinged with the same; and the tail feathers are tipped or tinged with the same color. These buffy edgings have mostly worn away or faded out to dull white before the birds migrate. Probably a partial postjuvenal molt in the fall produces a first winter plumage, which is like the adult, except that some of the juvenal wing coverts and a few scapulars are retained. A first nuptial plumage appears in a young bird, collected on March 17, which is beginning to acquire the white spots of the nuptial plumage on the head and breast, but still has some old, worn, juvenal scapulars and wing coverts. The young bird evidently acquires the adult winter plumage at the first postnuptial molt the following summer.

Adults have a partial prenuptial molt of the body plumage in March and April and a complete postnuptial molt in August and September. The adult nuptial plumage is characterized by the white lores, the small white spots on the forehead, and the larger white spots on the sides of the head, neck and chest; otherwise it is like the winter plumage, though the latter is somewhat lighter brown on the throat and chest.

Food.--The food of the black turnstone has evidently not been carefully analyzed, but it apparently consists of small marine animals such as barnacles, slugs, small mollusks, and crustaceans, such as are eaten by surf birds and other turnstones. Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer (1918) mentioned one, taken in Alaska in May, that had been feeding on heath berries. They quote Bradford Torrey (1913), as to the method of feeding, as follows:

They were feeding in three ways. Sometimes they followed the receding breaker, gleaning from the surface, as it seemed, such edibles as it had washed in. Mostly, however, they busied themselves upon the wet sand just above the last reach of the falling tide.

Once they found a place where the shrimps or prawns were evidently more plentiful than elsewhere, and it was amusing to see how eagerly they worked, each determined to get its full share of the plunder. Thrusting their short, stout bills into the sand, they drew out their squirming prey, dropped it on the sand, picked it up and shook it, and dropped it again, till finally they had it in condition for swallowing. These manoeuvers they repeated, all in desperate competitive haste, till the beach within a circle of a few feet in circumference was thickly dotted with minute hillocks of sand, such as I should never have attributed to the work of any bird, had it not been done before my eyes. Then the supply seemed to be exhausted, and they moved on in search of another bonanza.

At other times they resorted to patches of seaweed lying here and there a little higher on the beach, turning them bottom side up, or brushing them aside, to feast on such small game as had taken shelter underneath. Their action here was like that of a dog when he buries a bone by pushing the earth over it with his nose. They lowered their heads, and with more or less effort according to circumstances accomplished their purpose. If the obstacle proved too heavy to be moved in this manner, they drew back a little and made a run at it as men do in using a battering-ram. More than once I saw them gaining the needed momentum by this means. They quarrelled now and then over the business, and once two of them faced each other, bill to bill, like gamecocks--a most unusual proceeding among waders, firing off little fusilades of exclamations meanwhile. The turnstones’ disagreements were of the briefest, however, slight ebullitions of temper rather than any actual belligerency.

Behavior.--S. F. Rathbun has sent me the following notes on the behavior of this species:

The tide was just turning from flood, the time being about 3 p. m. On the rocks of the jetty whose top at the edge of the beach was just above the water’s surface and at times submerged by incoming waves, was a small flock of black turnstones numbering about 30. At first the birds would not allow a close approach but as we slowly neared them would take wing and, then coming together in close formation, circle in unison, rising and falling, close to the water’s surface to soon return and alight on the tops of the nearly submerged rocks. It was a beautiful sight to see them in flight as then the black and white of their plumage was strongly in contrast. After a short time the birds allowed a much closer approach for on one occasion we stood within 20 feet of the flock. As the tide receded much more of the surface of the rocks became exposed, although at times the waves dashed completely over them, and whenever this occurred it forced the turnstones to take wing. Sometimes one of the birds would be caught by an incoming wave and would then emerge in flight from the water, scattering the spray in all directions. But the rapid recession of the tide soon gave plenty of ground to search for food and in this all the birds became busily engaged. Some of the birds while so doing would climb the very abrupt surface of the rocks, clinging to the moss, which adhered, while examining with their bills the crevices of the rocks and also the moss for crustaceans and minute molluscs. At times one or more would rest on the side of a rock in perfect repose and evidence that a few were paired was seen by the fact that two often persisted in remaining in company.

One thing proved somewhat amusing to us, that although during the time the birds had been feeding they were repeatedly drenched by spray from the waves striking the rocks, when they finally ceased to feed a few at odd times would drop into the shallow water at the base of the rocks to bathe by dashing it over themselves, following which they would dabble about.

Mr. Brandt says in his notes:

Among the shore birds breeding along the coast of Bering Sea there is none more interesting and fascinating than this black and white turnstone. When the mud about the edges of the ponds and tidal sloughs begins to soften, and the accumulated snow water starts to move, this bird appears enlivening the bleak, cheerless marshes with its loud-toned cries and butterfly-like appearance. In the lowland area it is the commonest shore bird, and its contrastive black and white figure is doubly conspicuous, because it resents intrusion of its haunts and sallies forth to meet the approaching stranger; whereas the rest of the shore-bird tribe found there either skulk away or exhibit indifference. As the Pacific godwit is the self-appointed guardian of the upland tundra, so the black turnstone patrols the lowlands, often to the dismay of the hunter or the irritation of the ornithologist. In spite of its chunky body and comparatively short wings, it is gifted with elegance and swiftness of flight. It does not, like the phalarope, afford an inviting target for the young native hunters, because not only does it scold on the wing, but it also moves so nervously while on the ground that it is not quiet there even for a fraction of a second. No doubt the hunting jaegers consider it the pest of the flats, for while passing through its domain, these freebooters are usually being annoyingly followed by one or more of these fiery and courageous defenders.

Mr. Turner (1886) says that--

The sea-otter hunters, both native and white, detest this bird, as it frequents the places most resorted to by marine mammals and is certain to give alarm to the otter or seal which the hunter is endeavoring to approach.

Voice.--Doctor Nelson (1887) says: “It has a habit of circling around the intruder, during the nesting season, with a fine, clear, peeping cry like the syllables weet, weet too-weet, as it moves restlessly about. When disturbed in the vicinity of its nest it also has a sharp peet, weet, weet, very similar to the well known note of the spotted sandpiper.” Mr. Turner (1886) says that when alarmed and “taking flight they utter a rattling scream” which is quite startling.

Field marks.--When standing the black turnstone may be recognized by its uniformly dark head, neck, and chest, above a white belly; it lacks the white throat of the turnstone, and its upper parts appear all dark. But when flying it shows white patches quite similar to those of the turnstone, a patch in the center of the back, the base of the tail, a stripe in the scapulars and a broad band across the wings; there is rather more white in the wing than in the turnstone and the black tips extend along only the outer half of the wing; the surf bird has a much narrower white stripe in the wing.

Fall.--Doctor Nelson (1887) says, of the departure of these birds from Alaska: “In autumn they move gradually to the southward, until by the last of August they become rarer, and during the first half of September all have gone with the exception of an occasional straggler found along the seashore.” The migration extends down the coast as far as Lower California.

Winter.--Carl Lien regards them as common winter residents on Destruction Island, off the coast of Washington. He says, in his notes that they “begin to arrive about July 26 and leave in the spring the first week in May. They confine themselves entirely to the reefs and are very sociable, keeping up a continual chatter. The Aleutian sandpiper and a surf bird or two will nearly always be found among them. About 75 or 100 birds winter here.”

A. B. Howell (1917), referring to the islands off the coast of southern California, says that “this is by far the most abundant shore bird on the islands, much more so than on the mainland, occurring in flocks of as many as 30 individuals, and frequenting the rockiest shores.”

DISTRIBUTION

Range.--Pacific coast of North America, casual in northeastern Siberia.

Breeding range.--So far as known, the black turnstone breeds only on the Alaskan coast, the breeding range appearing to extend from Chichagof Island on the south, north to probably Montague Island, Ugashik, Nushagak, Hooper Bay, the Yukon Valley, St. Michael, Cape Prince of Wales, and probably the Kobuk River.

At this season it also has been detected on Wrangel Island, and Herald Island (Nelson) but is not known to breed, while nonbreeders have been noted south on the coast at British Columbia, Skidegate; Oregon, Yaquina Bay; California, Farallon Islands, Monterey Bay, Point Pinos, and San Miguel Island; and Lower California, Los Coronados Islands.

Winter range.--The winter range of the black turnstone extends north nearly to the breeding grounds and but little south of the southern limit of the nonbreeders. They have been noted in winter north rarely to Alaska (Craig and Howkan). Also in southern British Columbia (Victoria); Washington (Bellingham Bay, Smith Island, Dungeness, and Clallam Bay); Oregon (Yaquina Bay and Netarts Bay); California (Eureka, Tomales Bay, San Francisco, Monterey, San Miguel Island, Santa Cruz Island, San Pedro Bay, Santa Catalina Island, San Clemente Island, and San Diego County); and lower California (San Quintin Bay, probably San Geronimo Island, Magdalena Bay, and Santa Margarita Island).

Migration.--Because of the presence of individuals throughout the year in practically the entire range of the species, migration data are not significant.

The following dates of spring arrival are, however, available: Alaska, Admiralty Island, April 17; Juneau, April 29; Forrester Island, May 6; Bethel, May 12; Craig, May 15; and Nulato, May 16. Dates of fall departure from Alaska are Nushagak, September 22; Homer, September 26; St. Lazaria Island, September 30; and Wrangel, November 4.

Casual records.--On August 15, 1912, a flock of 20 was observed at Chaun Bay, northeastern Siberia (Thayer and Bangs). A specimen in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences was presumed to have been obtained in India, but the occurrence has been challenged (Hartert) on the basis that proof is lacking that the specimen was actually there collected. The record accordingly is eliminated for lack of evidence.

Egg dates.--Alaska: 96 records, May 28 to July 5; 48 records, May 31 to June 1.