By Gene Denzel
The Bird Studies group gathered at the Denzel home for the first meeting of the season. We were keen to inform each other about the various aspects of the two target birds, and share any good birding adventures people had enjoyed since last year. Present were Mike Turk, the Denzels, the Marshalls, Muriel Farrant, Dona Jonak, and Barbara Jackson. Some selected information follows.
The Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica) has sometimes been lumped in as a subspecies of the Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa), but at the present time they are deemed to be separate species in the order Charadriiformes and family Scolopacidae. The Hudsonian is considered near-threatened, but stable, and the Marbled is not globally threatened. The Marbled is primarily a North American bird, with nesting habitats mainly in the prairies, with a smaller group in Alaska. They mainly Winter along the SE and SW coasts, with a few going down into Central America. The Hudsonian, on the other hand, mainly nests in the sub-polar arctic region (Hudson’s Bay shores in Ontario and Manitoba, and various spots along the shores of Alaska, Yukon, etc), but they then migrate down to Southern Argentina and Chile. Both are large birds with very long bills, Marbled being the largest Godwit (somewhat larger than a Ring-billed Gull), and the Hudsonian being about 20% smaller overall (both length and weight). In spite of the different habitats, the food sources are similar (varying somewhat from breeding grounds to migration to wintering grounds): insects, crustaceans, worms, etc.
The breeding and migration behaviours of these two species are different. The Marbled tend to be more gregarious, flying and feeding in flocks in straight path, and with nest spacing being around 60 meters. The Hudsonian apparently does mate selection in coastal areas, and then the pairs move off to nest in well-hidden and scattered nests in the Boreal forest. They will roost in trees (wouldn’t it be neat to see that!) They also fly in V’s with an undulating flight path (unique for large shore birds).
The young of both species are precocial, usually 4+- per nest, and when the young leave the nest they can feed themselves, but are tended by both parents for another month. The young of the Hudsonian migrate later than the adults, so their migration path is innate.
Hudsonian have been seen in migration in Southern Ontario, usually singly. The Marbled are much more likely to be spotted, the Marshalls even saw a pair in the Rainy River area. There are subtle differences in patterns in both the Spring breeding plumage and the Fall migration plumage).
After we had discussed these two species, we were gifted with a fiendish quiz from Muriel, trying to match up a list of 10 species with their common names for a group. For instance, many will know of a ‘murder of Crows’, but how about an ‘unkindness of Ravens’?