Shorebirds from Two Hemispheres

Northern Lapwing takes off from Rutland Waters pool

One of the highlights of my summer was having opportunities to visit both Panama and England within a month of one another. As you've seen in recent posts, I saw and digiscoped a lot of cool critters. I could never begin to pick a favorite out of these, but I have to admit that I really enjoyed the opportunity to get great views and photos of two of the members of the Lapwing family. I'd never been fortunate enough to run into either of these birds prior to this, and even though neither is an uncommon bird in their respective ranges, both are great to see in the wild!

Northern Lapwing digiscoped with Leica APO Televid 77 scope and C-Lux 2 camera

The Northern Lapwing breeds across a wide front from Northern Europe all the way across Asia, wintering throughout southern Europe and northern Africa and across the southern portions of Asia. They are noisy and gregarious and a lot of fun to watch with their flashy wing displays. Strong flyers, Northern Lapwings regularly show up as vagrants in North America, with as many as 25 accepted records in many states and provinces.

Southern Lapwing digiscoped near Gamboa, Panama July 2007

The lovely bird above is the Southern Lapwing, it is a widespread species that breeds across most of South America. While considered non-migratory, in recent years, the Southern Lapwing has steadily spread it's range through Panama, to Costa Rica, and through the Caribbean to the Lesser Antilles. Extralimital reports have come from Mexico and Belize as well. So clearly this resident has some migratory tendencies.

Southern Lapwing poses for author, July 2007

There have been some controversial sightings of Southern Lapwing in the US, mostly in Florida, that have caused a stir in the birding community. Nearly all of these reports, come from late spring - early summer in the Northern hemisphere (28 April, 21 May, 1 June, 2 June, 17-25 June, and 23 July). Many experienced tropical birders speculate that this is a time when other southern hemisphere (austral) breeders would be moving North for the Austral winter. Further, when coupled with the aforementioned range expansion, many (myself included) feel that some of these birds are likely true wild vagrants that are overshooting their winter range and finding their way to North America on their own. However, the Florida record committee, continues to maintain that all (so far) have to be written off as escapees from captivity since the primary literature suggests these are non-migratory birds. Debating origin on birds outside their normal range is always fun, but whether acccepted as wild or not, it is possible that before long this lovely shorebird could have a foothold in southern North America as well!