Thanks to Bill for sharing this important story.  The news story from
Winnipeg is well worth reading, as it gives a lot of detail about what's
happening in northern Manitoba and Ontario, and parts of the eastern
Canadian Arctic. As Bill points out, this could have a perceptible impact on
what we see here in Ohio.  This is especially true as regards birds that
have a substantial part of their breeding range in the eastern Canadian
Arctic, such as Snow Goose, Cackling Goose, Hudsonian Godwit, the two
eastern subspecies of Short-billed Dowitcher, Greater Yellowlegs, even
Dunlin.

It will be worthwhile for Ohio birders to pay close attention to
Short-billed Dowitcher and Greater Yellowlegs in particular, since they
occur here in large enough numbers for us to detect changes.  Adult
Short-billed Dowitchers normally start showing up at the end of June, with
peak numbers of adults in early to mid July, and large numbers of juveniles
in August.  Adult Greater Yellowlegs start to show up in early July
(slightly later than the first push of Lessers) and probably peak here in
late July and early August; juveniles arrive here mostly in early August and
peak during September.  Based on what's happening in the eastern Canadian
Arctic, it's quite possible that we'll see adults of these two species
showing up earlier than normal (as they give up on any possibility of
breeding) and that numbers of juveniles will be sharply reduced from normal,
especially for the dowitcher.  Later in the fall, we'll certainly want to
scrutinize the Snow Goose flocks to check the percentage of young birds.

The newspaper story doesn't give an idea of just how extensive an area is
affected (I couldn't figure out the headline's reference to "90 percent of
the north").  But it evidently doesn't extend all the way across the North
American Arctic.  Young Ohio birder Ethan Kistler is working in Barrow,
Alaska, this summer, and he has been posting updates on his blog   (
http://nomadicbirder.blogspot.com/  ).  Barrow is a lot farther north than
most of the areas discussed in the Winnipeg newspaper story, but of course
it's a lot farther west as well.  Ethan's photos show a lot of the ground
snow-free on June 3rd.  For June 10th, he has photos of many nests
(nest-searching is part of his research job).  Barrow birds seem to be
enjoying a normal breeding season so far.  The fact that there were still
patches of snow on June 3 is no big deal -- on some of my Barrow visits I've
seen patches of snow as late as the end of June.  So this season's weather
may not be affecting migrants that breed farther west, like Long-billed
Dowitcher and Western Sandpiper, and it may be a mixed bag for those with
broad breeding distributions across the north.

At any rate, a lot of interesting things to think about as we head into the
fall shorebird migration, which starts in less than two weeks!

Kenn Kaufman
Oak Harbor, Ohio


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Whan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, June 21, 2009 9:00 AM
Subject: [Ohio-birds] Disastrous breeding season in the Arctic


>        There's a strong possibility many Arctic-breeding birds will return
> without offspring this year. There is a narrow window of opportunity to
> bring off a clutch at those high latitudes, and persistent cold temps
> may prevent many birds from reproducing this summer. Here's a
> biologist's interesting article from a Winnipeg newspaper:
> http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/big-chill-in-churchill-47992231.html
>        Will we see a southbound shorebird migration early this summer?
> Either
> way, will we see nearly all the migrants are adults? Other high Arctic
> breeders like geese may include very few young birds this year, too, and
> their schedule may be affected; given the figures offered in the
> article, numbers of migrant snow and Canada geese may be cut in half.
> Longspurs, some sparrows, loons, and numerous pelagic species seem to be
> at great risk as well.
> Bill Whan
> Columbus
>
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