First Record of the European Golden-Plover (Pluvialis Apricaria) from the Pacific

NOTES

FIRST RECORD OF THE EUROPEAN GOLDEN-PLOVER (PLUVIALIS APRICARIA) FROM THE PACIFIC

ANDREW W. PISTON, P.O. Box 6553, Ketchikan,Alaska 99901 STEVEN C. HEINL, P.O. Box 23101, Ketchikan,Alaska 99901

The EuropeanGolden-Plover (Pluvialis apricaria) breedsfrom Icelandand the BritishIsles east to the baseof the Taimyr Peninsula,Russia, at about 102 ø 30' E (Vaurie1965). Virtuallythe entirepopulation migrates to or throughEurope to winter in the BritishIsles, western Europe, and throughoutthe MediterraneanBasin; small numberswinter east to the southernCaspian Sea and casuallyto easternIndia, and smallnumbers winter on the Atlanticcoast of Africa,casually south to Gambia(Vaurie 1965, Cramp 1983). At the westernperiphery of thisrange, the EuropeanGolden- Ploveris a regularvagrant to Greenland,where it is alsoa localbreeder in the northeast (Boertmann1994). It is a casualvisitant to Newfoundland(including Labrador) and Saint Pierre et Miquelon,with nearly all recordsin April and May (Tuck 1968, Mactavish1988, ABA 1996). There are reportsfrom New Brunswick(Am. Birds[AB] 42: 408, 1988), Nova Scotia(AB 43:56, 1989; AB 44:390 1990; Natl. Audubon Soc. Field Notes [NASFN]49:222, 1995), and Quebec(AB 42:1271, 1988). On 14 January2001 we collecteda EuropeanGolden-Plover near the Ketchikan airport, GravinaIsland, Alexander Archipelago, southeast Alaska (55 ø 17' N, 131 ø 46'W). In a searchof the literature,and contacts with shorebirdspecialists in Asiaand the Pacific,we foundno evidenceof the prior occurrenceof thisspecies in the Pacific basin. Pistondiscovered the bird on 13 January2001 and watchedit for approximately one houras it fed on a rockygravel-covered beach with a flockof 35 BlackTurnstones (Arenaria rnelanocephala),three Rock Sandpipers(Calidris ptilocnernis),and two Surfbirds(Aph riza virgata). Knowingthat the occurrenceof a golden-ploverin Alaska in the winter wasunprecedented, he took photographsand notesin the field. Later that sameday we lookedover references and discussed the bird'sfield marks. The bird wasbrightly colored, with goldspeckles over the entireback and a goldenwash on the headand breast. The birdalso showed a faintwhite wing bar whenit flew,a fieldmark of the EuropeanGolden-Plover. Other criticalfield marks were not noted,and we did not makemuch of the wingstripe at the time. We discussedthe identificationof the EuropeanGolden-Plover, but, quitenaturally, did not seriouslyconsider that speciesa possibility.Instead we focusedour discussionon the field identificationof the American(P. dorninica)and Pacific(P. fulva) golden-plovers. We determinedto relocatethe birdthe next day andcollect a voucherspecimen of what we figuredto be a PacificGolden-Plover. We basedthis assumptionsimply on the factthat the birdwas brightly colored, and also because that specieswould be the mostlikely golden-plover to occurin Alaskain the winter.The PacificGolden-Plover winterslocally in very smallnumbers in California (Garrettand Dunn 1981, Harris 1996), and it has been foundcasually in winter from Oregon (Gilliganet al. 1994, Contreras1998) to the coast of southwesternBritish Columbia(Campbell et al. 1990). More recently,the PacificGolden-Plover has been reportedin winter at the QueenCharlotte Islands, British Columbia, only 150 km southwestof Ketchikan.One at Massett15 December1991-February 1992 wasreported as the firstwinter record for the QueenCharlotte Islands (AB 46: 304, 1992); two golden-ploversat Sandspit, 27 December1997, were considered"about" the fourthwinter recordfor the Queen CharlotteIslands (NASFN 52:245, 1998). Althoughthe AmericanGolden-Plover has been collectedin mid-winter in the southeasternUnited States (Paulsonand Lee

WesternBirds 32:179-181, 2001 179 NOTES

1992), there are no substantiatedmidwinter records on the west coast of North America.No golden-plovershad previouslybeen reported in Alaskain the winter. On 14 January2001 we relocatedthe birdwith the sameflock of shorebirdsand againnoted that it wasrelatively brightly colored. When it flewa shortdistance we saw thatthe birdindeed had a distinctnarrow white wingstripe across the baseof the flight feathers.At onepoint the birdflapped its wings and we wereboth stunned to seethat it clearlyhad white axillariesand underwingcoverts. We then noted that the bird appeared rather dumpy, with proportionatelyshort legs, a chunky body and a necklesslook, subtlydifferent from the slimmerbodied, longer legged, and longer neckedappearance that we are usedto seeingin the PacificGolden-Plover. We also notedthat the birdhad a shortish,slighfiy conical, deep-based, fine-tipped bill, and a uniformface pattern that lacked a strongsupercilium (the supercilium looked to be the samedull yellowish color as the auriculars).All of thesefield marksled us to believe that the bird was probablya EuropeanGolden-Plover. (Excellent treatments of the fieldidentification of the golden-ploverscan be foundin Haymanet al. 1986, Jonsson 1992, Beamanand Madge 1998, and Svenssonet al. 1999.) We saw the bird fly againthree or fourtimes, but the underwingsdid not look especiallywhite; either the lightwas not goodor we did not havethe rightangle. Each time it flewwe notedthe narrowwhite stripe on the upperwing,which could be seenclearly from at least100 meters.We agreedthat we had neverseen a Pacificor an Americangolden-plover with sucha distinctwing stripe. We collectedthe birdand were againstunned to see that the bird had white axillariesand underwingcoverts. We forwardedthe specimento the Universityof AlaskaMuseum (UAM), Fairbanks, where our identificationwas corroboratedby Daniel D. Gibson.Gibson prepared the specimenas a studyskin and preservedpartial skeleton, frozen tissues, stomach contents,and guts(lower digestive tract for diseasescreening). The specimen(UAM 12100) is a first-wintermale, with mass199.5 g (heavyfat), wing chord 181 mm, tail length71.0 ram, billlength (from distal end of naris)14.3 ram, billdepth 5.2 mm (at distalend of naris),bill width 4.9 mm (atdistal end of naris),and tarsus length 45.0 mm (D. D. Gibsonin litt.).The bird'sstomach contained six species of gastropodmollusks up to 3 mm in length--foursnails (Lacuna vinita, Margariteshelicinus, Lirularia succincta,Littorina scutulata)and two limpets(Lottia sp. and Tecturasp.)---plus at leastone crustaceanfragment (Tanaidacea; Nora R. Foster,UAM, in litt.). We thankDaniel D. Gibsonfor providing the specimen data and references, and for helpfulcomments that improvedthe qualityof this note. We alsothank KimballL. Garrett and Robert E. Gill for their reviews.

LITERATURE CITED

AmericanBirding Association. 1996. ABA Checklist:Birds of theContinental United Statesand Canada,5th ed. Am. BirdingAssoc., Colorado Springs, CO. Beaman,M., andMadge, S. 1998. The Handbookof BirdIdentification for Europe and the Western Palearctic.Princeton Univ. Press,Princeton, N.J. Boertmann, D. 1994. A annotatedchecklist to the birdsof Greenland. Meddelelser om Gronland. Bioscience 38. Campbell,R. W., Dawe, N. K., McTaggart-Cowan,I., Cooper,J. M., Kaiser,G. W., and McNall, M. C. E. 1990. The Birdsof BritishColumbia, vol. 2. RoyalBritish Columbia Museum,Victoria, B.C. Contreras,A. 1998. Birdsof CoosCounty, Oregon: Status and Distribution.Cape Arago AudubonSoc. and Ore. FieldOrnithol. Spec. Publ. 12. Cramp,S. (ed.).1983. Handbookof the Birdsof Europe,the MiddleEast, and North Africa,vol. 3. OxfordUniv. Press,Oxford, England.

180 NOTES

Garrett,K., and Dunn, J. 1981. Birdsof SouthernCalifornia. Los Angeles Audubon Soc., Los Angeles. Gilligan,J., Smith,M., Rogers,D., and Contreras,A. 1994. Birdsof Oregon:Status and Distribution.Cinclus, McMinnville, OR. Harris, S. W. 1996. Northwestern California Birds. Humboldt State Univ. Press, Arcata, CA. Hayman, P., Marchant,J., and Prater,T. 1986. Shorebirds:An IdentificationGuide. HoughtonMifflin, Boston. Jonsson,L. 1992. Birdsof Europewith North Africa and the MiddleEast. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, N.J. Mactavish,B. 1988. GreaterGolden-Plover invasion, 1988. Birding20:242-249. Paulson,D. R., and Lee, D. S. 1992. Winteringof LesserGolden-Plovers in eastern North America. J. Field Ornithol. 63:121-128. Svensson,L., Grant,P. J., Mullarney,K., andZetterstrom, D. 1999. Birdsof Europe. PrincetonUniv. Press,Princeton, N.J. Tuck, L. M. 1968. Recent Newfoundlandbird records.Auk 85:304-311. Vaurie,C. 1965. The Birdsof the PalearcticFauna. H. F. & G. Witherby,London.

Accepted 17 August 2001

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