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| Sanderlings - Mid-Sep., Brittany: One species but two age classes: the bird to the left is an adult showing the typical winter plumage, whereas the bird to the right is a juvenile with only very few (grey) mantle feathers already moulted. |
Jeroen : It is early July, and most Arctic shorebirds are on their breeding grounds now. I have just returned from Zackenberg in northeast Greenland, and it appeared to be a non-breeding season, which I have never experienced before. It looks like hardly any shorebird will breed this year along the entire east coast of Greenland, so I would already ask for your help to document the (extend of the) effects of this odd Arctic summer by counting the number of juvenile and adult Sanderlings when they have returned from the Arctic. You can find a manual of how to do this - Please contact Laura for PDF
You can send your counts to Jeroen by e-mail. j.w.h.reneerkens@rug.nl
In this link you can read more about what I witnessed in the last half of June in Greenland:
Jeroen Reneerkens of the University of Groningen
To understand the viability of the population
of sanderlings, data on survival and
reproduction are essential. Reproductive
success of the High Arctic breeding sanderlings
can vary considerably from year
to year due to the varying circumstances in
the breeding grounds (lemming cycles and
predation pressure). Reproductive success
can best be estimated in the wintering
grounds as the proportion of juveniles
within flocks. However, due to the enormous
and widespread wintering range of
Sanderlings, reliable estimates can only be
obtained when many observers at many
locations score the number of juveniles
within flocks in a standardised and reliable
manner. We would like to ask for your help
with this. At the end of the season we will
report the results to you.
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