Some context for Ohio's recent shoretages of these birds is provided by
the most recent compilation of shorebird population estimates in North
America, available at
http://www.shorebirdplan.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ShorePopulationAndresEtAl2012.pdf
  .  Most of these estimates come from the often-remote breeding grounds
of these birds, and derive from the demanding and even dangerous work of
dedicated shornithologists.
        A surprising number of the estimated populations have grown; seldom
because the birds have burgeoned overall, but usually because increasing
efforts and luck have found more of them in places unexplored before.
Some of the more accessible and better-known species, whose population
estimates are more reliable, offer surprises: killdeers are down, and
upland sandpipers are up, for example...go figure.
        This is enlightening reading, not too technical, and takes you on a
trip to the ends of the earth up north, and you need only imagine the
polar bears and mosquitoes. It offers a much wider perspective than
Ohio's on these world-wandering birds.
Bill Whan
Cols

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]