Dennis Paulson wrote:
>
> Just to add to Michael's comments, the Sharp-tail is a spectacular example
> of wrong-hemisphere migration. I have often wondered if the ones that come
> down the American Pacific coast were just pulled in by the flocks of
> Pectorals that breed in Siberia but winter in the Americas (I think they're
> the source of most of our Pacific coast Pectorals), but people have
> reported pure flocks of Sharp-tails in Alaska. Hundreds move through Alaska
> and small numbers south of that down to Oregon and, sparingly, California,
> yet there are no records south of California. It may be that wandering
> Sharp-tails set out across the vast Pacific on routes similar to those used
> by Pacific Golden-plovers, Wandering Tattlers and Ruddy Turnstones, and
> winter on tropical islands rather than Australia, where most of them go. We
> need a lot more surveillance of western Mexico, especially good shorebird
> habitats in Baja in the fall. If all of these species really had tapered
> off by that latitude, it would support the idea that they were heading out
> over the Pacific. Anybody want to volunteer for the Great Baja Wader
> Extravaganza?

I recently read of a Bar-tailed Godwit that was located in Ensenada in
Baja California. There are also several records of old world waders from
various South American sites, the most amazing in my mind being that of a
Terek Sandpiper from Buenos Aires province in Argentina. As Dennis implies,
the lack of Asian shorebirds in the Neotropics may be an artifact of low
coverage in these areas. As well, travelling birders tend to be fixated on
getting lifers, therefore scanning a flock of non-breeding shorebirds probably
holds little appeal as most will be northern hemisphere non-lifers.


Al Jaramillo
jaramill at sfu.ca
Vancouver, B.C.