We had a LONG-BILLED CURLEW on 14 May at New River, Coos Cty.
We had a WESTERN KINGBIRD today along the access road to Floras Lake,
Curry Cty.
A couple of notes on shorebird migration and BT Curlew.
If you went to the link for Mike Patterson's article about the 1998 BT
Curlew, I will point out that it is Kathy Castelein, not Karen, for
anyone who may be confused.
To somwhat address Bob's question about migrating shorebirds, or the
lack of them. While I am not a migration shorebird expert, I do have a
lot of experience with shorebirds, migration, and weather along the
Oregon coast. I have discussed the migration phenomenon in the past.
Yes the shorebirds do migrate even if we do not see them, and why and
how we see them is dependent on low and high pressure systems. We do
not see them in low pressure systems because the conditions are not
conducive to push them close to the ground and they do not have strong
NW winds which benefit migration. Note that birds generally don't
migrate or fly with the wind at their back, which low pressure systems
would cause. Birds fly into the wind so they get lift easy. I have
speculated that the shorebirds, when they have lack of high pressure,
are taking alternate strategies/routes. What those are is a bit of
mystery to me, but they are either flying up higher, further out to sea,
or further inland - or all of the above. I do not know anyone who has
knowledge of exactly what they do.
Cheers
Dave Lauten and Kathy Castelein
Bandon OR
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