Fair enough, Greg. I didn’t bother to personally check out the Sunshine Coast
for overwintering Wandering Tattlers this year as there seemed to be plenty of
other people doing that and seeing them.
Wandering Tattlers are interesting birds and quite mysterious. I haven’t been
able to find any definite information on the flight paths they take to and from
the breeding grounds in NW North America and E Siberia but it seems that they
must do some island hopping and Hawaii is possibly a major stop-over. There
seems to be little evidence of them using the East Asia-Australasian Flyway to
get here. There are some records of them in Asia but I have recently had
definite evidence that such records need to be treated carefully. I was sent a
photo of a tattler seen in Hong Kong which the ‘locals’ felt sure was a
Wandering Tattler but it was plainly a juvenile Grey-tailed. That is not to say
all or any of the officially accepted reports from Asia and Japan are wrong, of
course.
If the birds you saw on the Sunshine Coast in August actually did leave for the
breeding grounds last May I wonder if they went all the way or only went part
of the way before turning back? Unfortunately we will never know the answer to
that sort of question until someone does some detailed study on their flight
paths – perhaps with goelocators. .
I must say that I am surprised to see two Wandering Tattlers still in what
amounts to full breeding plumage in late August; the birds I have seen at that
time of the year have only ever had the slightest vestige of breeding plumage
remaining. Perhaps the birds I saw were all 1st/2nd year birds which did not
attain full breeding plumage anyway and ‘your’ birds were/are older adults.
Certainly, none of the birds I have seen and which I have assumed were birds
returning from the breeding grounds from late October and onwards had anything
more than a few chevrons on the flanks and under-tail.
So, I’ve learnt something and that is always good.
I do suspect, though, that the main body of returnees has still to arrive here.
Bob Inglis
Sandstone Point
Qld
From: Greg Roberts
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 7:03 AM
To: ;
Subject: Wandering Tattler time is approaching
Bob
The birds pictured in the blog post appeared to be in full breeding plumage.
Also, the one or two tattlers that overwintered at Alexandra Headland were in
non-breeding plumage.
I found in the past on North Stradbroke Island that the time the tattlers
returned could vary substantially from year to year.
Greg Roberts
Wandering Tattler time is approaching
from [Robert Inglis]
[Permanent Link][Original]
To:
"Birding-Aus" < >
Subject:
Wandering Tattler time is approaching
From:
"Robert Inglis" < >
Date:
Thu, 4 Oct 2012 15:57:04 +1000
Greg,Are you sure they aren’t just birds overwintering? Wandering tattlers do
overwinter on the Sunshine Coast most years and some even achieve a fair degree
of breeding plumage.My experience has been that the first new arrivals are
juveniles and they arrive around the end of October.It would be a quick
turnaround for birds that leave Australia in May to be back here in August. Bob
Inglis
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