Date: 4/12/26 6:17 pm From: Don Morrow <donaldcmorrow...> Subject: [NFLbirds] April Shorebirds at SMNWR
I was down at Lighthouse Pool at St. Marks NWR last month. High tide had
pushed shorebirds in and over two thousand of them were feeding in the
pool’s shallow waters. There were Short-billed Dowitchers, Black-bellied
Plovers, Willets, and both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, but over ninety
percent of the birds were Dunlins. Suddenly, they all began to fly as a
Merlin swooped in. I watched as the flock twisted, turned, and split up.
There were brief white flashes as thousands of Dunlin simultaneously showed
their light bellies before spiraling away.
The Merlin was persistent and kept up the chase, its flight path
corkscrewing across the surface of the pool. It was, however, eventually
unsuccessful and flew off down the coast to seek other victims. Most of the
pool’s shorebirds had simply flown around in circles and they landed when
the Merlin left. This was just a normal part of life for them.
The Dunlin that comprised most of that flock are the most common shorebird
at the refuge in winter. They are a medium-sized sandpiper, just a bit
chunky, but weigh only two ounces. Dunlin are on the refuge from October
through the middle of May and are already in their winter plumage when they
arrive. They are a dull grayish brown above and whitish below and have a
slightly decurved black bill. They were once called Red-backed Sandpipers,
because in breeding plumage, they have a bright rufous back along with a
black belly patch. Some Dunlin are already beginning to molt into breeding
plumage.
Dunlin are a cosmopolitan species and breed in the arctic throughout the
world. The *hudsonica* subspecies that we see at the refuge, are from a
population that breed in central Canada, roughly from Victoria Island down
to the southwest coast of Hudson Bay. In winter they feed on tidal flats
and eat polychaete worms and small shellfish. On their breeding grounds,
they mainly eat insect larvae, although female Dunlin eat Lemming teeth and
bones as a calcium source for egg laying.
Shorebirds are active right now. Dunlin numbers have dropped by 40% from
their winter high as birds begin to stage northward, but there are still
2,300 Dunlin on the refuge. Short-billed Dowitcher and Semipalmated Plover
numbers have jumped as migrants from further south move through and if you
look closely, you’ll see that our Willets are now mostly the eastern
subspecies. Most of the western Willets are gone.
Several shorebird species that are here only on migration, Stilt Sandpiper
and Piping Plover, are passing through and our summer breeders are
returning. Three pairs of Black-necked Stilts are on the back end of Stony
Bayou 2 where they have nested in past years, Wilson’s Plovers have begun
to show up and an uncommon refuge breeder, Killdeer, already has two
fledglings running on the mudflats at East River Pool.
I like shorebirds. They are one of my favorite groups of birds. They are
creatures of wind and tide with continent-spanning migratory flights that
connect us to the arctic and the pampas of Argentina. If I was a shorebird,
I would want to be a Pectoral Sandpiper.
Come down to St. Marks and figure out what kind of shorebird you want to
be.
