Subject: Long-tailed Jaegers and Bristle-thighed Curlews (fwd)
Date: Aug 31 12:48:32 1994
From: Dan Victor - dvictor at u.washington.edu


This came in response to a posting from tweeters to birdchat

Dan Victor, Seattle, WA <dvictor at u.washington.edu>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 13:27:44 EDT
From:Macklin.Smith at um.cc.umich.edu

--from Macklin Smith

On tussock tundra domes in the Seward Penninsula, LTJ's clearly
frequent the nesting areas of Whimbrels, Bar-tailed Godwits, and
Bristle-thighed Curlews. As Brina Kessel points out in her book
on the birds of that area, these shorebirds engage in cooperative
warning calls and mobbing behavior, trying to elude and/or gang
up on the jaegers.

Enter people. I made this point a couple of months ago in my
report about Nome, but it bears repeating. In one area fre-
quented by birders, the population of BTC's has declined drastically
in but 3 or 4 years. My theory--and it's only that--is that
birders flushing these birds clue the jaegers into their nest
locations. Any thoughts on this? If I'm right, then tour leaders
including--occasionaly--myself ought to make sure that they are
acting ethically. If I ever lead a trip to Nome again, I won't
return to the area in question (near Coffee Dome), nor would I
let tour members tromp through a concentrated nesting area. Or
am I overreacting? It just seems to me that since the BTC's are
stable at other spots and declining at this one, people--birders--
are making the difference--unless we want to just blame the
jaegers.