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North American shorebird populations.



Hi Carolinabirders,

Frank and I originally planned to take a Patteson pelagic out of Virginia 
Beach yesterday, and spend today on the CBBT. Alas, the weather blew out 
the pelagic both days, and scared us off the CBBT yesterday. Today, Frank 
decided it was in his interest to stay in Durham. So no birding for me 
this weekend: stayed indoors and wondered why the suet feeder at my house 
attracts so much traffic, but the seemingly identical feeder at my 
girlfriend's house, containing a seemingly identical suet cake, has 
attracted nothing. I can't even find a single beak mark. I recently moved 
it from the initially promising, but not terribly visible, hanging site 
on a small apple tree to a much more visible site on a dead maple 
seedling, but no improvement.

Did notice the following message on a few other listservs. Should be of 
interest to many here as well. A few numbers are hard to believe. For 
example, the 10,000 Common Ringed Plover; granted, this species is tough 
to separate from Semipalmated, but I'd still expect many more reports by 
birders if there were this many breeders. On the flip side, only 25K 
Solitary Sandpipers; seems low. But maybe this is just due to where I've 
lived. 3.5 million each of Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers seems 
right, although funny coincidence that the numbers of these two species 
would be the same... Entirety pasted below.

Good birding,

Josh

Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

To all who love shorebirds,

The Canadian Wildlife Service has just released its "Estimates of 
shorebird populations in North America" (Occasional Paper Number 104) 
authored by R.I.G. (Guy) Morrison (2001) and five other Canadian and 
American ornithologists. Remember that these numbers are best estimates. 
NA = North America.

1. Black-bellied Plover: Global 498,000 with 200,000 in NA.

2. American Golden-Plover: 150,000+

3. Pacific Golden-Plover: Global population 125,000 with 16,000 in NA.

4. Snowy Plover: Global 586,000 with 16,000 in NA.

5. Wilson's Plover: 6000+

6. Common Ringed Plover: Global 442,500 with less than 10,000? in NA.

7. Semipalmated Plover: 150,000

8. Piping Plover: 5913 with 2110 in Canada.

9. Killdeer: 1,000,000+ with Canadian population estimate of 366,000. 
Size of Neotropical population is unknown.

10. Mountain Plover: 9000 with 10 in Canada.

11. American Oystercatcher: Global 58,850 with 8850 in NA and 4 in Canada.

12. Black Oystercatcher: 8900

13. Black-necked Stilt: Global 850,000+ with 150,000 in NA and 400 in 
Canada. 

14. American Avocet: 450,000 with 63,000 in Canada.

15. Greater Yellowlegs: 100,000

16. Lesser Yellowlegs: 500,000

17. Solitary Sandpiper: 25,000

18. Willet: 250,000 with 25,000 in Canada. Eastern nominate subspecies 
(semipalmatus) estimated at 90,000 and western interior subspecies
(inornatus) at 160,000.

19. Wandering Tattler: 10,000 with 5,000 in Canada.

20. Spotted Sandpiper: 150,000

21. Upland Sandpiper: 350,000 with 10,000 in Canada.

22. Eskimo Curlew: Less than 50 if the species still survives. "Note: In 
my opinion, the Eskimo Curlew has been extinct for many years. Last 
specimen taken in Canada on 29 August 1932 in Labrador. Last 
photographed (one) in March and April 1962 near Galveston, Texas. Last 
specimen shot on 4 September 1963 in Barbados, West Indes. No 100% 
reliable sightings since the 1960s. Recent reports probably are juvenile 
Whimbrels with short bills or vagrant Little Curlews."

23. Whimbrel: Global 797,000+ with 57,000 in NA.

24. Bristle-thighed Curlew: 10,000. This species breeds in Alaska and
winters in Oceania.

25. Long-billed Curlew: 20,000. The Canadian breeding population is
probably several thousand birds.

26. Hudsonian Godwit: 50,000 with about 10,000 migrating through James 
Bay.

27. Bar-tailed Godwit: Golbal 1,345,000 with 100,000 in NA.

28. Marbled Godwit: 171,500. The Canadian breeding population is about
103,000 with the small James Bay population estimated at 1000 to 2000 
birds.

29. Ruddy Turnstone: Global 449,000 with 235,000 in NA.

30. Black Turnstone: 80,000

31. Surfbird: 70,000

32. Red Knot: Global 1,29,000 with 400,000 in NA.

33. Sanderling: Global 643,000 with 300,000 in NA.

34. Semipalmated Sandpiper: 3,500,000

35. Western Sandpiper: 3,500,000

36. Least Sandpiper: 600,000

37. White-rumped Sandpiper: 400,000

38. Baird's Sandpiper: 300,000

39. Pectoral Sandpiper: 400,000

40. Sharp-tailed Sandpiper: Global 166,000 with about 1000 using the NA 
Pacific coast south of Alaska.

41. Purple Sandpiper: Global 65,000 with 15,000 in Canada.

42. Rock Sandpiper: Global 200,000 with 150,000 in NA including 1000+
wintering in British Columbia.

43. Dunlin: Global 3,934,000 with 1,525,000 in NA.

44. Stilt Sandpiper: 200,000

45. Buff-breasted Sandpiper: 15,000

46. Short-billed Dowitcher: 320,000. Three well-marked subspecies with
estimates of 110,000 for eastern nominate griseus, interior hendersoni
about 60,000, and western caurinus about 150,000.

47. Long-billed Dowitcher: 500,000

48. Common Snipe: Global 26,750,000 with 2,000,000 in NA.

49. American Woodcock: 5,000,000 with 1,000,000 in Canada.

50. Wilson's Phalarope: 1,500,000 with 680,000 in Canada.

51. Red-necked Phalarope: Global 4,000,000 with 2,500,000 in NA.

52. Red Phalarope: 1,000,000

Four Additional Species:

1. Gray-tailed Tattler: Confirmed breeding record for Alaska.

2. Red-necked Stint: A few dozen breed in Alaska.

3. Curlew Sandpiper: A few dozen breed in Alaska.

4. Ruff: A few dozen breed in Alaska.

This 64 page report (Occasional Paper Number 104) is available from:
Publications
Canadian Wildlife Service
Environment Canada
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0H3
(819) 997-1095
(819) 997-2756 (fax)
cws-scf@ec.gc.ca
http://www.cws-scf.ec.gc.ca

Happy shorebirding,

Ron Pittaway
Co-editor, Ontario Birds
Box 619, Minden ON  K0M 2K0
E-mail: jeaniron@sympatico.ca

Jean Iron
President, Ontario Field Ornithologists
9 Lichen Place
Toronto, Ontario M3A 1X3
Canada
Phone: 416-445-9297
e-mail: jeaniron@sympatico.ca
Web Page: http://www.interlog.com/~ofo