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28 International Studies 19 Status of ferruginea in Canada and the United States of America, excepting Alaska

JENNIFER W. HANSON

1104 Aspen Drive, Plainsboro, NJ 08536, USA

Hanson, J.W. 2006. Status of Calidris ferruginea in Canada and the United States of America, excepting Alaska. International Wader Studies 19: 28–30.

In the first half of the 20th century, most North American Curlew Sandpiper records came from Long Island, New York, with subsequent records from a number of sites. On the East Coast, there is a July peak in Curlew Sandpiper reports, and then reports tail off until October. Duting a smaller peak in May, in the Cape Hatteras area, North Carolina, multiple individuals are seen annually during northward migration. Most interior records come from the Great Lakes region, most frequently Ontario and Michigan. Curlew have been recorded all along the West Coast from British Columbia to southern California. Unlike most of the rest of , West Coast records are mainly on southwards passage; the peak is in September and most are likely to be juveniles.

INTRODUCTION York City metropolis but had not yet been completely devel- oped. A cadre of knowledgeable and enthusiastic observers The Curlew Sandpiper Calidris ferruginea is a frequent avian was based in New York City; even though their reports tailed vagrant to North America. In some areas, it is more a rare off during World War II due to wartime restrictions, it was migrant than an accidental visitor. As a result, patterns of evident by 1950 that Curlew Sandpipers occurred almost occurrence are more easily noted for the Curlew Sandpiper annually in this area (Cruickshank 1942, Bull 1975). Other than for many less common species. These patterns differ areas that had their first Curlew Sandpiper records during this considerably in different parts of the United States and era were the West Coast south of Alaska, with a collected Canada. Although these patterns can be quite marked, espe- at Masset, British Columbia, on 31 July 1936 (Roberson cially in areas where Curlew Sandpipers occur most regularly, 1980, Godfrey 1986), and the south-eastern U.S., with a bird there are still many enigmas about the occurrence of this at St Augustine, Florida, in 1949 (Robertson & Woolfenden species in North America. In this paper, I provide an over- 1992). view of the Curlew Sandpiper’s status in North America out- With increasing numbers of birdwatchers during the side Alaska (Gibson & Kessel 2006). second half of the 20th century, more areas of North America Many of the reports and records in this article were were covered regularly and more Curlew Sandpipers were gleaned from Birders Journal, North American Birds/Field recorded. Frequently, these new spots proved to attract the Notes/American Birds, Western Birds and BirdEast. “Record” species consistently. For example, the first North Carolina refers to an observation that was accepted by a records record was 29–30 June 1971 at Morehead City (Teulings committee or author; “report” refers to an undocumented 1971), but before long observers realized that the Cape observation. Hatteras area, North Carolina, was the best place in North America to find Curlew Sandpipers, with multiple individu- HISTORICAL STATUS als seen annually during northward migration. Currently, descriptions of the Curlew Sandpiper’s North The Curlew Sandpiper was first recorded in North America American status are mixed. Writing of the species’ traditional by John James Audubon, who took two specimens at Great stronghold, the East Coast from New York to Delaware, Egg Harbor, New Jersey, in spring 1829. He also collected Boyle et al. (1996) said that it is “a species reported with a specimen on eastern Long Island, New York, “near Sandy decreasing frequency in recent years.” For many years the Hook” (Buonanno 1998). These areas subsequently proved Curlew Sandpiper had been reported annually in New Jersey, to be among the North American locations where Curlew usually with more than one report per year; there were single Sandpipers most regularly occur. reports in 1998, 2000 and 2002, and two in 2003 (and none A few more Curlew Sandpipers were taken by hunters and in 1999 and 2001) (BirdEast archive). On the other hand, in collectors during the 19th century. By the end of the century, both Missouri (Brock 1998) and Colorado (Truan & Percival specimens had been collected from the states of Maine and 1998) the first Curlew Sandpiper records were in 1998, and Massachusetts and the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Nova Scotia had “an unprecedented fall” with as many as five Scotia, and Ontario (Forbush 1925, Godfrey 1986, Tufts reported on southward migration in 1999 (Bain & Shanahan 1986). There are some other reports from this era, but con- 1999). A possible explanation for Curlew Sandpipers appear- flicting details in the literature and lack of extant specimens ing almost regular at favoured sites may be due to the fact that make these reports difficult to assess. birds repeat a route that has worked for them in the past. In the first half of the 20th century, by far the most North When these birds die, the Curlew Sandpiper may abruptly American Curlew Sandpiper records came from eastern Long become less common or cease to occur at a site. The inevi- Island, New York. This area was conveniently near the New table fluctuations of weather patterns, breeding success, and

28 Hanson: Canada and the United States of America 29 habitat conditions at favoured sites certainly affect the spe- Curlew Sandpiper, far fewer than Nova Scotia. cies’ status. Much remains to be learned about these effects. Relatively little is known about the Curlew Sandpiper’s occurrence in the interior of North America, compared to the DISTRIBUTION coasts. Most interior records come from the Great Lakes region, most frequently Ontario and Michigan, which indi- The Curlew Sandpiper has been found in most U.S. states and cates that Curlew Sandpipers regularly move through this Canadian provinces. Mlodinow & O’Brien (1996) listed 35 area on their migrations. A number of interior states and prov- states (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) with published reports inces have had their first Curlew Sandpiper records recently; of the species. The species has since appeared in five addi- most of these are away from the Great Lakes area. It is pos- tional states (Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, sible that Curlew Sandpipers fly over interior areas away and Tennessee). It seems likely that the Curlew Sandpiper from the Great Lakes, being found only occasionally if they will eventually be recorded in every U.S. state. In Canada, stop to rest and feed. As records accumulate here, the patterns only the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and the Yukon have should become clear. Seasonally, interior reports show simi- no records yet, but all are large, sparsely-populated areas with lar trends to East Coast reports, with a peak in May and few resident birders. For purposes of discussing the occur- another slightly lower peak in July, tailing off through Octo- rence of the Curlew Sandpiper in North America, I will split ber. Southern parts of the interior on the Gulf Coast, such as the continent into three parts: East Coast, the interior, and Texas and Louisiana, show the same May peak in Curlew West Coast. Sandpiper reports as do more northerly portions of the region. Curlew Sandpipers visit the East Coast annually. The Curlew Sandpipers have been recorded all along the West regions with the most reports are North Carolina’s Outer Coast from British Columbia to southern California, with Banks and coastal Delaware, where the species is best clas- records from both the outer coast and from protected waters sified as an uncommon migrant. In both locations, multiple such as San Francisco Bay. Inland records for the West Coast individuals are seen during southward migration. In Dela- states and provinces are extremely rare, possibly rarer than ware, the species is also annual on northward migration, in the east. Unlike most of the rest of North America, West though it is much less common on the Outer Banks. The Coast records are mainly on southwards passage. It also maximum for North America is five birds seen at Portsmouth appears that a larger percentage of West Coast Curlew Sand- Island, North Carolina, 28 July 1992 (LeGrand 1993); four pipers are first year birds. Because the West Coast’s peak is individuals at a time have been seen in Delaware, New York, in September, and juveniles in North America are seen in this and in North Carolina (Hanson 1999). Other locations where month almost exclusively, this could be a real pattern, but age the species is annual or nearly so are Chincoteague, Virginia; information is frequently not included in reports in the litera- coastal Atlantic County, New Jersey; eastern Long Island, ture, especially older ones. Paulson (1993) recorded a juvenile New York; and coastal south-eastern Massachusetts. Curlew Sandpiper on 17 July 1983, at Tillamook, Oregon, but On the East Coast as a whole, there is a July peak in this seems too early a date and is likely to have been a mis- Curlew Sandpiper reports, and then reports tail off until identification, a possibility left open by the observer. October, with a few scattered reports later in the year. There is a second, slightly smaller peak in May. There are few DISCUSSION reports of birds spending the nonbreeding season in North America, mostly from Florida. An unusual report is of a bird The question remains why Curlew Sandpipers appear so fre- which stayed at Fort Myers Beach, Florida, from 14 October quently in North America. Another Old World wader with as 1993 to 15 May 1994 (Mlodinow & O’Brien 1996). Further many or more North American reports and which has also north, there are a few exceptional records during this period. bred in Alaska is the Philomachus pugnax; most others There is a December specimen and a January sight report are far rarer. It is possible that both species have small North from eastern Long Island (Cooper 1998), a December sight American breeding populations, accounting for the frequency report from New Jersey (Hanson 1999), and January sight with which they are recorded. This remains conjectural, how- reports from Delaware (Boyle et al. 1985) and Nova Scotia ever. (Tufts 1986). These reports are complicated by the Curlew One reason that adult Curlew Sandpipers are so frequently Sandpiper’s similarity in non-breeding plumage to the more reported may simply be that birds in breeding plumage are common C. alpina. conspicuous and catch the attention of birders, even those Within the larger East Coast area, occurrence patterns who have not carefully studied wader identification. The vary. For example, New Jersey reports peak occurrence in rusty underparts of the breeding plumage are among the last May, not July, and reports on southward migration are less feathers moulted and the first replaced (Cramp & Simmons likely to involve long-staying birds than in North Carolina or 1983); there is a record of a bird in partial breeding plumage Delaware (Hanson 1999). Virtually all reports of juvenile from 31 October to 1 November 1981, near Fernbridge, Cali- Curlew Sandpipers are in September, a pattern that also holds fornia (Binford 1985). true for the rest of the continent. A substantial proportion of reports of North American In contrast with the U.S. East Coast, Canadian Atlantic Curlew Sandpipers are of adults. Most vagrant are records of Curlew Sandpipers are almost all on southward immature birds. It is possible that juveniles are overlooked, migration. The species appears in Nova Scotia in most years, but opinions are divided on how difficult juvenile Curlew but is not annual there. Newfoundland is known as a hotspot Sandpipers are to identify. If adults really do account for for Eurasian vagrants, especially European Golden Plover many North American Curlew Sandpiper reports, it raises the Pluvialis apricaria, but these usually occur on northward possibility that these birds are not vagrants in the accepted migration (Knowles 1995). Curlew Sandpipers, however, are sense, but are following a traditional migratory path. Only most common in western Europe during southward passage, more fieldwork by birders looking for juveniles will help and their northward passage is generally farther east, through resolve this issue. the eastern Mediterranean (Cramp & Simmons 1983). This Another peculiarity of the Curlew Sandpiper’s North helps explain why Newfoundland has only six reports of American distribution is the substantial number of records on 30 International Wader Studies 19 northward migration. Most vagrant waders appear on south- a large role in determining where Curlew Sandpipers end up, ward migration. The Ruff is the only other Old World wader but little study has been done on this. As much as North with a large number of reports on northward migration in American observers have been able to learn about this wader, North America, at least away from the West Coast it has many secrets yet to be discovered. (Mlodinow & O’Brien 1996). Bull (1975) summarized three explanations which have ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS been advanced to explain the occurrence of Curlew Sand- pipers in eastern North America on northward migration. One I would like to thank the New Jersey Bird Records Commit- theory holds that birds are displaced westward from Europe tee for sponsoring my article on Curlew Sandpipers in New immediately prior to observation. Another holds that birds are Jersey. Without that experience, I could not have written this caught up in storm systems on southward passage, carried paper. across the Atlantic Ocean to winter in South America, later to return northward along the East Coast. The third theory REFERENCES suggests that Curlew Sandpipers migrate overland from east- ern and Alaska through the interior and to the East Bain, M. & Shanahan, D. 1999. Cross-Canada round-up: August and Coast; and that from here they could continue to South September 1999. Birders Journal 8: 210–228. America or perhaps cross the Atlantic to West , a Binford, L.C. 1985. Seventh report of the California Bird Records Com- known nonbreeding area, and return along the East Coast on mittee. Western Birds 16: 29–48. Boyle, W.J., Jr, Paxton, R.O. & Cutler, D.A. 1985. 1984–1985 winter northward migration. season report, Hudson-Delaware Region. American Birds 39: 150–154. The first theory is supported by records in Nova Scotia Boyle, W.J., Jr, Paxton, R.O. & Cutler, D.A. 1996. 1995 fall season being predominantly on northward migration and fits well report, Hudson-Delaware Region. Audubon Field Notes 50: 258–261. with the idea of birds being displaced westward from Europe Brock, K.J. 1998. 1998 summer season report, Middle Western Prairie in the season when they are most numerous there. On the Region. Field Notes 52: 461–464. other hand, if Nova Scotia gets European birds at this time, Bull, J. 1975. Birds of the New York Area. New York: Dover. why does Newfoundland not get more? Buonanno, R.R. 1998. Audubon’s Multimedia Birds of America: The Curlew Sandpiper. http://www.abirdshome.com/Audubon/VolV/ The second theory also has supporting evidence. For 00573.html example, banding returns of some Eurasian waders and sea- Cooper, M.F. 1998. Curlew Sandpiper. In: Levine, E. (Ed.) Bull’s Birds birds, including the Curlew Sandpiper, show that birds use of New York State. Ithaca, NY: Comstock Publishing: 260–262. favourable trade winds on southward migration to arrive in Cramp, S. & Simmons, K.E.L. (Eds) 1983. The Birds of the Western Barbados, sometimes as soon as two weeks after having been Palearctic. Vol. 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press. banded in Europe (Kuyken 1971, Hutt et al. in press). Pre- Cruickshank, A.D. 1942. Birds Around New York City. New York: American Museum of Natural History. sumably, these birds continue south to as-yet undiscovered Forbush, E.H. 1925. Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England nonbreeding grounds in South America and return along the States. Vol. 1. Massachusetts Department of Agriculture. East Coast on northward migration. Gibson, D.D. & Kessel, B. 2006. Status and distribution of the Curlew There is also support for the third theory. Curlew Sand- Sandpiper Calidris ferruginea in Alaska. Int. Wader Studies 19: 27. pipers become associated with flocks of Dunlin which make Godfrey, W.E. 1986. The Birds of Canada. 2nd ed. Ottawa: National transcontinental flights from staging areas on the Alaska Museums of Canada. Hanson, J.W. 1999. Curlew Sandpipers (Calidris ferruginea) in New Peninsula and Yukon Delta to the west coast of North Jersey. Records of New Jersey Birds 25: 26–31. America. Curlew Sandpipers, mostly juveniles, are seen Higgins, P.J. & Davies, S.J.J.F. (Eds) 1996. Handbook of Australian, annually in such flocks, but occasionally adults are also New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, Volume 3: Snipe to Pigeons. Mel- recorded (for example, in September 2005, two adults were bourne: Oxford University Press. observed with Dunlin on the Alaska Peninsula site and single Hutt, M.B., Hutt, H.F., Massiah, E.B., Buckley, P.A., Frost, M.D. & adult on Yukon Delta; R.E. Gill in litt.). Buckley, F.G. in press. The Birds of Barbados, West Indies. B.O.U. Records on the West Coast are predominantly on south- Check-list. British Ornithologists’ Union, Tring. Knowles, K. 1995. A Newfoundland invasion by European vagrants. ward migration and are most likely to be vagrant juveniles Birders Journal 4: 144–149. from eastern Siberia, and possibly even Alaska. Adult Curlew Kuyken, E. 1971. Een Krombeksstrandloper (Calidris ferruginea) na twee Sandpipers are rare in the eastern Pacific, with their main weken teruggemeld op de Kleine Antillen (Am.). Gerfaut 61: 162–163. southward movement apparently occurring through the LeGrand, H.E., Jr. 1993. 1992 summer season report, Southern Atlan- Malaysian Peninsula to (Higgins & Davies 1966). tic Coast Region. Amer. Birds 47: 79–82. The southward migration by juvenile Curlew Sandpipers Mlodinow, S.G. & O’Brien, M. 1996. America’s 100 Most Wanted Birds. Helena, MT: Falcon Press. is noted for its scatter (Underhill 1995). Nisbet & Vine Nisbet, I.C.T. & Vine, A.E. 1956. Migration of Little , Curlew Sand- (1956) described the pattern as “haphazard . . . in space and pipers and Ruffs through Great Britain in the autumn of 1953, Brit. time”. This variability probably accounts for a large propor- Birds 49: 121–134. tion of the records of this species in the New World. Paulson, D. 1993. Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle: Univer- sity of Washington Press. Roberson, D. 1980. Rare Birds of the West Coast. Pacific Grove, CA: CONCLUSION Publications. Robertson, W.B., Jr. & Woolfenden, G.E. 1992. Florida Bird Species: An In summary, the large number of North American Curlew Annotated List. Florida Ornithological Society Special Publication 6. Sandpiper reports allows observers to delineate patterns of Teulings, R.P. 1971. 1971 summer season report, Southern Atlantic Coast occurrence, but there is still much to be learned about the Region. Amer. Birds 25: 843–846. species and its status in North America. It is a rare migrant Truan, V.A. & Percival, B.K. 1998. 1998 summer season report, Moun- on the East Coast, and annual in the interior and on the West tain West Region. Field Notes 52: 482–484. Coast. The large proportion of adults reported indicates that Tufts, R.W. 1986. Birds of Nova Scotia. 3rd ed. Halifax: Nimbus/Nova Scotia Museum. this is a regular migration path for a small part of the Curlew Underhill, L.G. 1995. The relationship between breeding and non- Sandpiper population, but it is still unclear whether juveniles breeding areas of waders: the Curlew Sandpiper as an extreme exam- are being overlooked or not. Weather patterns doubtless have ple. Ostrich 66: 41–45.