Yes, that is the conventional wisdom.
What is not said is from which breeding grounds do the ‘Australian’ Wandering
Tattlers come.
The statements “They cross the Pacific Ocean to Pacific islands, north-east
Australia and New Zealand” and “The Australian distribution of the Wandering
Tattler suggests arrival on the north-east coast directly from the Pacific” are
somewhat overly broad and possibly misleading, in my opinion. There is an
assumption, apparently, that the Wandering Tattlers recorded in the Port
Moresby area come there via the Solomon Islands via ‘the Pacific Ocean’. How do
we know that? Then there is “also movement through the Torres Strait,
suggesting some may come via New Guinea”. Do any of those birds move south into
Queensland? Apparently we don’t yet know.
The statement “The Australian distribution of the Wandering Tattler suggests
arrival on the north-east coast directly from the Pacific, but also movement
through the Torres Strait, suggesting some may come via New Guinea” suggests to
me the possibility of separate flight paths to Australia for different groups
of Wandering Tattlers, possibly from different breeding grounds. How do the
Wandering Tattlers which turn up in New Zealand get there and which breeding
ground/s do they come from?
For another example, where do the Wandering Tattlers which breed around Anadyr,
in Eastern Siberia (from where, on a clear day, it is almost possible to see
Sarah Palin’s house) go for the boreal winter and how do they get there? It is
more than likely, in my opinion, that these birds are the ones which “move
through Asia” and are seen, albeit rarely, in Korea, Japan, Taiwan and E.
Micronesia. Are these some, at least, of the Wandering Tattlers recorded in the
Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea? Do these birds reach Australia or do they
stop in New Guinea or venture to the Darwin area?
For the interests of any one really interested in this topic, there is a
photograph of a Wandering Tattler on the breeding grounds around Anadyr at this
address:
(Wandering Tattler at Anadyr, Eastern Siberia.)
http://shorebirder-waderworld.blogspot.com.au/2011_08_10_archive.html
The bird appears to fitted with what looks like a geo-logger; certainly it is
more than a mere green flag. I don’t know who fitted the logger or where it and
the colour bands were fitted but it is reasonable to assume, considering the
probable difficulty of capturing Wandering Tattlers on their non-breeding
habitat that they were fitted on the breeding grounds.
I have no idea how many Wandering Tattlers have been fitted with colour bands,
flags or geo-loggers but I have not yet seen a Wandering Tattler in Australia
with any of those devices during the past 10 years I have been photographing
that species.
It seems to me that the only accurate way of finding out the answers I have
posed above would be through attaching some sort of tracking device. These days
I am of the opinion the best devices would be geo-loggers if they can be made
small enough, reliable enough and fitted safely and securely.
Of course, before we do that sort of thing we have to decide if gathering data
(knowledge) which may or may not be useful for something we can perceive of as
well as something we cannot yet perceive of is a worthy thing to do.
Bob Inglis
Sandstone Point
Qld
From: Chris Gregory
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013 4:57 PM
To: Robert Inglis
Cc: Birding-Aus
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Where do "our" Wandering Tattlers breed and how do
they get here?
Got this from Australian Dept. of Environment .... site.
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=831#australian_distribution
Wandering Tattlers migrate southwards from breeding grounds in Siberia, Alaska
and north-west Canada for the boreal winter. They cross the Pacific Ocean to
Pacific islands, north-east Australia and New Zealand. They also move down the
Pacific coast of America. Wandering Tattlers move through Asia and increasingly
arrive in Pacific islands from August to October, often via Korea but also via
Japan and Taiwan. Adults first arrive at Hawaiian Islands in August. They move
through Samoa in August to September, arrive in Fiji in late August, and arrive
later at some other islands. Wandering Tattlers are regular visitor to Papua
New Guinea where, in Port Moresby district, they are an uncommon passage
migrant from August to October.
The Australian distribution of the Wandering Tattler suggests arrival on the
north-east coast directly from the Pacific, but also movement through the
Torres Strait, suggesting some may come via New Guinea. They apparently arrive
in Australia from September onwards and rarely move as far west as the Northern
Territory. In New Zealand, they are recorded from September. Some may not move
far once in non-breeding areas. Most Australian records are from Lord Howe and
Norfolk Islands, in January to April. Reliable records suggest birds begin
leaving Australia in April-May. They pass through the Port Moresby district,
Papua New Guinea, in March-June and are not usually recorded in Papua New
Guinea after early May. In the Pacific, they leave Fiji, Samoa, the Cook
Islands, Gilbert and Ellice Islands and Hawaiian Islands in April or May. In
Asia, they pass through Korea in May and are recorded from Kurile Island in May
and June. They are thought to be at the breeding grounds from late May.
First-year birds regularly spend the breeding months in non-breeding areas, and
a few remain in Australia over winter; they are also recorded wintering in New
Zealand (Higgins & Davies 1996).
Any help with your theory?
Chris Gregory
On 24 February 2013 17:30, Robert Inglis <> wrote:
If we have gathered all the information we can and/or need about shorebirds,
for example, could someone please tell me where the breeding grounds for the
Wandering Tattlers which appear in Australia are and what is the route they
take to get to the south east corner of Queensland?
I have a theory but I would like the hard data to verify, or otherwise, my
theory.
Bob Inglis
Sandstone Point
Qld
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