Date: 6/27/25 6:28 pm From: Dennis Paulson via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Shorebird Southbound Migration Begins
Hi Michael,
Many thanks for that interesting information from another shorebird junkie!
I always think of the last week of June as the beginning of “fall” shorebird arrival. I think it is mostly the adults that either had a failed nest or weren’t involved in the later parental care.
Dennis Paulson
Seattle
> On Jun 25, 2025, at 11:57 PM, Michael Price via Tweeters <tweeters...> wrote:
>
> Hi tweets
>
> As a shorebird junkie, June 26 is a personally significant day for me as it is the average arrival date of the first species, Western Sandpiper, in the southbound shorebird migration in Vancouver BC.
>
> In the Eighties and Nineties I worked out average arrival and departure dates for most of the shorebirds here, then tested them against observation at a number of hotspots such as Iona Island (settling ponds and jetties), Boundary Bay, Reifel Refuge Robert's Bank. In particular I paid attention to the individuals present during the hiatus between the north– and southbound migrations so that when the first returning birds appeared, there'd be no mistaking them for the loitering layabouts.
>
> And one year, I was there at the exact moment of the first return Westerns at Iona Island. And about eight in the evening, I spotted them in a tight incoming flock in the northwest, a small flock of twenty birds weaving back and forth before finally arriving at the pond and eventually setting down.
>
> Ironically, they're the last migrant species to leave, with Nov 01 as their average departure of the last flock of 10+ birds. The singleton Westerns which remain to overwinter are almost exclusively First-year males with short icepick bills.
>
> Michael Price
> Vancouver BC Canada
> <loblollyboy...> <mailto:<loblollyboy...> >
> Every answer deepens the mystery.
> -- E.O. Wilson
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