I thought someone would have addressed why a Curlew Sandpiper banded in
Australia would end up in South Africa. (Not because, as some would like
to think, that it had the scared out of it).
Curlew Sandpipers breed in Siberia. Those in the east migrating south to
Australia while those breeding in the west migrate to Africa. I was at a
symposium on migration in South Africa in 1993 and a paper was presented
on the migration of Curlew Sandpipers. I don't have the paper on hand and
my memory is letting me down a little on the precise detail but there is
an area of overlap in the breeding ranges of these two "populations".
While Curlew Sandpipers are normally fairly faithful to wintering sites
(that is the area used outside the breeding season) this particular Curlew
Sandpiper is not the first bird to perform this switch of migration route.
This bird most likely breeds in the overlap and got caught up in the
"wrong" flock of migrating birds. It would be interesting to know if it
is now imprinted upon the wintering site in South Africa.
David Geering
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