A few birds from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
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Semipalmated Plover:Semipalmated Plover Uyarruyuaq Watch this little plover with a black necklace as it flies round and round above you in spring, calling chu ee, chu ee, chu ee. Notice its slow, exaggerated wing beats. Continue watching and you may see it land on the ground, then crouch with tail spread, wings open, feathers fluffed up, and still calling excitedly, chu ee, chu ee, chu ee. If you look around carefully, you’ll see the reason why he’s so excited. There is a female plover watching him, too, judging whether or not his mating display matches her expectations. If it does, it won’t be long till they do mate and she lays four eggs in a shallow scrape on bare gravel or sand sometimes next to a large rock. The eggs are olive-buff in color with dark brown blotches, and are placed in the nest with their tapered ends facing inward, in the shape of a cross. As with other plover species, both parents incubate the eggs until they hatch about 25 days later. Almost immediately the downy young leave the nest. Both parents also tend the young, but do not feed them. They are instinctively able to do this by themselves, feeding on the same fare their parents do: small insects and their eggs and larvae, worms and crustaceans. They quickly pick up their parents’ habit of finding their food by sight, typically running a few steps, pausing abruptly, then running again, pecking at the ground whenever they see something appetizing, then running again, in a jerky start-and-stop fashion. If danger approaches, the parent bird reacts with a pathetic broken-wing act, fluttering along the ground with wings down-stretched as if injured, thus luring the would-be predator away. The parents are finally in the clear when their young take their first flight at 23-31 days old. When that happens you can almost hear them breathe a deep sigh of relief! The “Semipalmated” plover gets its name from the partial webbing between its three toes. It has no hind toe (hallux), which is a trait typical of almost all plovers. Its scientific name, Charadrius semipalmatus, is a Greek-Latin combination meaning “half-handed” plover. The Yupik name refers to the black necklace it wears around its neck. I like this name the best. By now these little plovers are long gone from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. They leave in August for warmer weather and a more bountiful storehouse of food far to the south. I was amazed last winter to find them on the beaches of Ecuador when I was down there with my son Steven exploring for winter birds. That’s one long migration.  |
