Subject: tropical visits
Date: Sep 22 17:00:25 1994
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


Al Jaramillo wrote, ". . .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."

Unfortunately, this was also true of early ornithologists in the
Neotropics, who collected great numbers of rain-forest birds but pretty
well ignored northern migrants in many areas. There was of course
rationale; they were limited in time and money (and even cases in which to
put specimens) and had to get the most bang for the buck, so to speak. I
have been studying non-breeding "summering" shorebirds for some years, and
it's amazing how few specimens of them are available in museums from the
tropics (or for that matter the temperates) to study their molts and
plumages.

I suppose birders are similarly motivated. However, I can only say that
while in Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela, looking at shorebird flocks to see
who lived in these exotic places was among the most fun things I did. Who
could resist a solid flock of 1,000 Lesser Yellowlegs at Chichiriviche,
Venezuela (at least as interesting as the flock of flamingos beyond them)?
But I guess I'm a little odd.

Dennis Paulson