Monterey Audubon - Fall shorebird migration / Pectoral Sandpiper

Fall shorebird migration is already underway! While Monterey County hosts a variety of shorebirds year-round, many species are passage migrants that appear during more compressed windows while in transit between their breeding grounds and wintering grounds. Adults tend to appear earlier than the juveniles born this year.

Pectoral Sandpiper is one of our uncommon but regular fall migrants. It is quite recognizable thanks to its medium size (standing out as larger than nearby "peeps"), bill shape, and that neatly defined breast pattern. They nest in the tundra from eastern Russia to Alaska and northern Canada and migrate nearly 19,000 miles roundtrip traveling to and from their winter range in southern South America. (A few also make it to Australasia). Wow!

📸: (c) Brian Sullivan - Monterey County, California (10/1/2011).

Bill

由使用者 billhubick 在 2024年07月24日 20:27 所貼文