Subject: Re: shorebird overflights
Date: Sep 30 15:18:46 1994
From: bob o'brien - H6LG at PSUORVM.BITNET


The conversation may be going in several directions simultaneously.

Regarding CA wintering, Dennis points out the Southern Hemisphere wintering hab
its. Further, there are few if any CA winter records for any of these birds.

Regarding overflight vs. coverage vs. avoiding No America altogether, the vario
us species should be subdivided.
Sharp-tail is primarily an Asian species, Buff-breasted Alaskan. I'm pretty ce
rtain there are more records for both species on average in the NW than in CA.
This may be true of Baird's as well. The two American species are primarily m
id-continent migrants and perhaps they drift eastward. But what about Sharp-ta
iled? Most records are for the NW, where it is expected, but there are records
for many places in No America.

Regarding the true rarities, for instance the three 'stints', I would guess tha
t NW vs. CA records are roughly comparable, in spite of greater CA coverage. T
his would imply these birds spend more time on average in the NW, but apparentl
y not this year.

Finally, we should all remember that Great Knot only migrates 'through' Oregon,
although it may well migrate 'over' other west coast states.

Then, we could get into ducks, but perhaps we'd better not for now.