FALL (migration) HAS ARRIVED!

Yes, it may be the statement of a deranged individual during this sweltering summer heat to declare that fall has arrived.   However, for several of our avian species the “fall” or southbound migration is already underway.  “Fall” migration begins with some of the greatest world travelers, the shorebirds.   This past week I saw the first migrant Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, Long-billed Curlew, and Least Sandpiper of the fall.   About thirty-five species of shorebirds are regularly found in Nebraska and most are migrants.   Several of these migrant shorebirds breed on Arctic tundra and winter in South America.   This means that any one individual may travel more than 30,000 miles in a year, a staggering feat for an organism that may weigh no more than the change in your pocket.   A couple years ago, the Nongame Bird Program, along with Iowa State University and University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was engaged in a research project focused on Long-billed Curlews.   One Long-billed Curlew with a satellite transmitter commenced migration from its breeding area in the Nebraska Sandhills on 11 June and was in Tamaulipas, Mexico, on 16 June.