TerekSandpiper (Xenus cin s). a first for Mexico

Daniel6alindo precipitationaveraging 200 mm (Garcia edge.The wingtipsextended backward 1964). to just reachthe tip of the tail. The un- CentroInterdisciplinario deCiencias Marinas On ll April 2002, Galindo locateda derpartswere white and unmarked.The TerekSandpiper (Xenus cinereus; Figure 1) legswere extremely bright yellowish-or- Av.Instituto Polit•cnico Nacional s/n at Chametla-El Centenario. This bird was ange.The lengthof the legs relativeto LaPaz, Baja California Sur23096 Mexico seenagain during late May 2002 Presum- the bird was shorter than that seen in ably the samebird wasrelocated there on most Tringaand approximatedthe pro- (email:[email protected]) 21 August 2002 and wasseen eleven more portionsof a SpottedSandpiper [Actitis times before it was last recorded 10 Febru- macularius]. The bill was long and ary 2003.The TerekSandpiper fed mostly curved upward. Its length was 1.5 to Steven(•. Mlodinow in the intertidalzone, usuallyin mixed 1.75 times that of the head. The bill was flocks of Semipalmated Plovers largelyblackish, excepting a smallarea 4819Gardner Avenue (Charadriussemipalmatus) and Western of brightorange at the base.Brief flight Sandpipers(Calidris mauri). On four occa- views revealeda thick white trailing Everett,Washington 98203 sions, it was observed roosting at the edgeto the secondariesthat extendedas supralittoralzone, among a flock of Semi- a narrower whitish area onto the inner- (email:[email protected]) palmated Plovers. Throughout its stay,it mostseveral primaries. The rump and appearedto be in goodhealth, feeding and uppertailcoverts were gray, The rectrices flyingwithout apparent problems. were gray with whitish barringon the RobertoCarmona The followingis a descriptionof the En- outer portionof the outer web of each senadade La PazTerek Sandpiper based on rectrix(which provided a whitishouter LuisSauma fieldnotes and videotapeby SGMfrom 29 border to the tail as a whole). The Terek January2003 (archivedat the San Diego Sandpiperfed by dashingforward quick- UniversidadAut6noma deBaja California Sur NaturalHistory Museum): ly and thenpicking food off the surface DepartamentodeBiologia Marina, A.P. 19-B A medium-sizedwader with very active (or near the surface) of the mud (or wet feedinghabits. Overall, its sizewas dis- indentations/shallowpuddles). Occa- LaPaz, Baja California Sur23080 Mexico tinctlylarger than that of nearbySemi- sionally,the bird appearedto probe.In- palmatedPlovers, but it seemedsmaller deed,the Terek was easy to spotat a dis- (email:[email protected]) than Lesser Yellowlegs [Tringa flavipes], tancewith the nakedeye because of this which were not available for direct com- vet)-active feeding style. parison. The back, nape, and crown Abstract were uniformly gray with a slight Discussion This paper documentsthe first Mexican brownishcast. The foldedwings were The Ensenadade La Paz TerekSandpiper recordof TerekSandpiper (Xenus cinereus) similarin color,but thelower edge, from providedMexico's first record and wasat a at Ensenadade La Paz,Baia California Sur lessercoverts to primaries,was darker, latitudeconsistent with the northernedge and summarizes other New World records forminga darkline alongthe entire low- of this species'wintering range in Asia of the species. er wing edge.This dark line curvedup- (Hayman et al. 1986). Other Western ward and backward a short distance Hemisphererecords also fit the latitudinal Field Encounter along the upper edge of the lesser patternof thisspecies' Old World distribu- As part of a researchprogram studying coverts,in a mannerreminiscent of ju- tion: northerlyrecords have mostlybeen shorebirds at Enscnada de La Paz, Car- venile Sanderling[Calid•is alba]. The duringmigration, whereas Southern Hemi- mona, Galindo, and Saumasurveyed a gray of the nape extendeddownward sphereand tropical records seem to pertain stretchof Ensenadade La Paz biweekly onto the side of the neck. The auriculars largelyto winteringbirds. from August 2001 to March 2003. The were gray.A narrow,dark eyelineex- TerekSandpiper breeds in northernRus- study area was an approximately4-kin tendedbehind the eye aboutthe same sia from the Scandinavian border east to length of tidal mudflat at Chametla-El distanceas the 1orallength (i.e., the dis- the KolymaRiver (north of the Kamchatka Centenano,which •s at the southernend of tancebetween the eyeand thebill base). Peninsula) and winters from southern Ensenadade La Paz, which in turn is at the Abovethe eye was a white supercilium Africaeastward along the shoresof the In- southernend of La Paz Bay Due to the that extendedback as far asthe eyeline. dian Ocean to northern Australia (A.O.U. shallowslope, extensive muddy tidal flats This white superciliummet, or nearly 1998). New World records have come are revealed at low tide (Fernandez et al. met, above the bill. Often, there seemed mainly from Alaska, where the A.O.U. 1998). This region,at the far southeastern to be a short,narrow dark upperborder (1998) consideredthis speciesa regular cornerof the BajaCalifornia Peninsula, is to the supercilium.While perched,the migrantthrough the western Aleutians and characterizedby its aridity,with an annual tail appearedgray with a white outer a casualvagrant to St.Lawrence Island, the

454 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS Bahia, Brazil 16 March 1997 (Mazar Bar- nett 1997), and in Argentinafrom Punta Rasa, Buenos Aires province December 1987-January1988 and from Saladillo, BuenosAires province in December1990 (Mazar Barnett and Pearman 2001).

Acknowledgments For assistancein the field, we owe many thanksto the entirestaff of the Programa de Aves Acu•ticas de la Universidad Aut6nomade BajaCalifornia Sur. For help in researchingprior New World records, manythanks to Juan Mazar Barnett, Rudolf Koes,and Eddie Massiah.Richard Erickson and Paul Lehmanare greatlythanked for their many helpful commentson earlier versionsof thismanuscript.

Literature cited AmericanOrnithologists' Union [A.O.U.]. Figure1.Terek Sandpiper (Xenus ½inereu• atEnsenada deLa Paz, Baja California Sur29 January 2002. This individual isthe first 1998. Check-list of North American tobe recorded inMexico and only the ninth in the knericas away from Alaska. Photograph f•omdigitalvideotope bySteven6. Mlodinow. birds. Seventh edition. American Or- nithologists'Union, Washington, D.C. SewardPeninsula, and Anchorage. The son and Harriman 1989). From interior Fernandez, G., R. Carmona, and H. de la speciesis alsoseen almost annually in the North America,there is a singlerecord Cueva. 1998. Abundance and seasonal Pribilof Islands (D. Lovitch, in litt.) A re- from Churchill, Manitoba 13 July 1972 variation of Western sandpipers viewof recentrecords published in North (A.O.U. 1998;Birding 5: 11-12); the im- (Calidrismaud) in Baja CaliforniaSur, AmericanBirds and its predecessors(from mediate coastline of eastern North America Mexico. Southwestern Naturalist 43: summer1992 throughspring 2002) yield- also has but one record, at Plum Island, 57-61. ed the following Alaska records:nine Massachusetts23 June1990 (Stempleet al. Garcia,E. 1964. Modificacionesal sistema recordsfrom 29 May through11 June, two 1991). In the Caribbean and mainland de clasificaciOnclimdtica de Koeppen recordsfrom 8-27 July, and two records South America,reports of single Tereks (para adaptariaalas condicionesde la from 25 August-8September. Only three come from Trinidad and Tobago29 June RepablicaMexicana). Instituto de Ge- of the above records were from the Aleu- 1999 (Taylor2001), fromBarbados 1 May ografia,UNAM, Mexico. tians. Six were from Gambell on St. 2000 (ph. E. Massiah),from Porto Seguro, Goodwill, M. E., and J. E. V. Goodwill. Lawrence Island, two 1988.Terek Sandpiper in BritishColum- were from St. Paul Is- bia, Canada.American Birds 42: 177. land, one was from the Hayman,P, J. Marchant,and T. Prater. Seward Peninsula, and 1986. Shorebirds:an identificationguide one was from Anchor- to the wadersof the world. Houghton age. Notably, the An- N Mifflin, Boston. chorage record, 8-15 Kessel,B. 1989. Birdsof theSeward Penin- July [998, was that sula,Alaska. University of AlaskaPress, area's seventh (Iobish Fairbanks, Alaska. 1998); Kessel (1989) Mazar Barnett, J. 1997. First report of listed only one other Xenus cinereus (Charadriiformes: record for the Seward Scolopacidae)for Brazil. Ararajuba5: 236-237. Peninsula. • o Ocean Away from Alaska, Pacific Mazar Barnett,J., and M. Pearman. 2001. there are only nine Annotatedchecklist of the birdsof Ar- Western Hemisphere gentina. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, records prior to that Ocean Spain. from Mexico (Figure Stemple,D., J. Moore,I. Ginunas,and M. 2). Along the Pacific Paine.1991. TerekSandpiper in Massa- chusetts: first record for eastern North Coast, singles have been recordedat Sooke, America. American Birds 45: 397-398. Vancouver Island, Taylor,M. 2001. The firstTerek Sandpiper British Columbia 21 Xenuscinereus in Trinidadand Tobago. July-6 August 1987 Cotinga16: 66. (Goodwill and Good- Tobish,T.G.,Jr. 1998. The nestingseason: will 1988) and Mon- Alaskaregion. Field Notes 52: 490-494. Figure2.Locations ofTerek Sandpiper records frorn Americas: (1)Aleutian Islands, Wilson, E. M., and B. R. Harriman. 1989. terey County, Califor- (2)St. Paul Island, (3) St. Lawrence Island, (4) Seward Peninsula, CS)Anchorage, nia 28 August-23 [6)British Col•nbia, (7) Manitoba, (8) Massachusetts, (9)California, (10) La Paz, First recordof the Terek Sandpiperin September1988 (Wil- (11)Barbados, (12)Trinidad and Tobago, (13) Brazil, and (14) Argentina. California.Western Birds 20: 63-69. •

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