Red Knots

Birding IS Fun

By Mia McPherson, on December 19th, 2012%

My monthly post is up over on BirdingIsFun.com today, I hope you will go on over and read about Red Knots – A species on the edge. I shared a post on Red Knots two days ago here on my own blog and I wanted to share the information with the great group of viewers on BirdingIsFun too.

In case you have never visited BiF I think you will enjoy the terrific authors there, the super information and images provided by the authors and how the BiF community welcomes all birders, people who want to learn more about bird and bird photographers. They welcomed me and I am just a lowly bird photographer!

Red Knot flock in flight

There was another post yesterday on BiF that I’d like to bring to your attention about the American Kestrel Partnership, a project that is near and dear to my heart. My friend Matt Giovanni shares information about the American Kestrel Partnership, a project of the Peregrine Fund. Matt is in North Dakota right now with a pickup bed full of wood destined to become kestrel boxes to be put up in partnership with USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center and Dakota Audubon. I hope he stays warm in North Dakota! Here is the post on BiF.

Female American Kestrel

Head on over to BirdingIsFun! We’ll be waiting.

Mia

Red Knot in early morning light

By Mia McPherson, on December 17th, 2012%

Red Knot in nonbreeding plumage – Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1/640, ISO 320, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light

A simple image of a Red Knot taken in Florida in early morning light. Morning has been; and is, my favorite time of day to photograph birds and other wildlife because the rising sun can add drama and a warm glow to whatever subject I am photographing. I was laying on the wet shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico when I photographed this Red Knot in nonbreeding plumage.

Red Knots are a species on the edge of extinction, their numbers are rapidly declining and collectively we need to do everything we can to ensure the survival of these shorebirds.

Mia

Red Knots – A species on the edge

By Mia McPherson, on July 7th, 2011%

Flock of Red Knots flying by

Flock of Red Knots (Calidris canutus) flying by
Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
Nikon D200, f6.3, 1/750, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light

Red Knots are medium sized shorebirds and the largest of the “peeps”. Red Knots are long distance flyers, some traveling over 9300 miles to their breeding grounds in the high Arctic tundra and winter as far south as Tierra del Fuego, Chile. During migration and winter Red Knots are found on coastal beaches, sand bars and tidal flats.

Red Knots where two of them are banded

Red Knots where two of them are banded
Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
Nikon D200, f6.3, 1/1600, ISO 320, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light

I first became interested in Red Knots on the west coast of Florida where I would see flocks of them resting and foraging on the shoreline. I noticed that many of the knots were banded and I wanted to know why so I began to search for information about Red Knots on the net. I found out that the birds are being banded in North and South America to study the decline of this species and that valuable information is gained about Red Knots by reports of resightings and recaptures of the banded birds.

I began to takes images of any banded Red Knot that I saw while out photographing on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and reported them. I even looked for them on the tidal flats of Panama City and in Costa Rica.

Twelve year old banded Red Knot

Twelve year old banded Red Knot
Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
Nikon D200, f6.3, 1/800, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light

Most of the photos I have taken of Red Knots have been taken to document the bands I saw and are not among my best images. The image above is poor quality but what it shows me is that this Red Knot was banded in Delaware in 1997 (the first year they banded knots there) and that at the time I photographed this Red Knot it was twelve years old!

Foraging Red Knot in nonbreeding plumage
Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
Nikon D200, f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm at 400mm, natural light

Red Knot populations are in serious decline partly due to the over-harvesting of Horseshoe Crabs along the Atlantic coast of the United States, the eggs of which are an important food source for this species. Red Knots fatten up on the crab eggs during their long migration north and without the stored energy those eggs provide many breeding adults do not have enough body mass to make the journey to the Arctic tundra to successfully breed.

Red Knot at sunrise going south for the winter

Red Knot at sunrise going south for the winter
Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
Nikon D200, f5.6, 1/640, ISO 320, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light

Red Knots are on the edge of extinction and without further regulation of Horseshoe Crab harvesting in North America plus additional protection and conservation measures for Red Knots they may well disappear in our lifetime.

Mia

For more Information on Red Knots and Horseshoe Crabs:

To Report Resightings of Banded Red Knots

PBS: Crash: A Tale of Two Species Very compelling (Full video)

Ecological Society of America : Demographic consequences of migratory stopover: linking red knot survival to horseshoe crab spawning abundance

USGS confirms horseshoe crab, shorebird link

American Bird Conservancy: Red Knot Wintering Population Drops by More than 5,000, Accelerating Slide to Extinction

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: The Horseshoe Crab – A Living Fossil

Friends of the Red Knot

More Red Knot images

Birds with bands

By Mia McPherson, on September 6th, 2010%

As a bird photographer it can some times be disheartening when you have great light, a wonderful setting and a beautiful specimen of a bird in front of your lens when you see the “jewelry” (bands) that some birds will be wearing. However; those bands can supply information about that individual bird that may help its species survive. Whenever I see and can photograph a banded bird I do my part and send the information on the re-sighting in. At the end of the post I will provide some links for resightings.

Banded Red Knot

Banded Red Knot
D200, HH, f6.3, 1/1500, ISO 400, 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light

Red Knots (Calidris canutus) have been a species of special interest for me since I first saw one while living in Florida. I would see banded Red Knots on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico and because of the bands I began to do research about the species and soon found myself reporting all the banded Red Knots I saw and photographed there hoping that my small contribution of information to researchers might help these beautiful shorebirds.

Red Knots are a long distance migratory species. They winter in Chile and Argentina then fly 9,000 miles to the Canadian Arctic Circle to breed. On the way north Red Knots feed upon the eggs of the Horseshoe Crabs, fattening up for the long journey and to acquire fat reserves in case food is not plentiful on the breeding grounds. They need those fat reserves to raise their young and so they can begin to make the long journey back to South America.

Horseshoe crabs have been harvested for their blood which can make a medical dye, for their shells which are used for fertilizer and they are also used for bait in eel pots. The medical dyes can be synthetically produced as can the fertilizer.

Due to dramatic declines in Red Knot populations there are ongoing research studies for this species. Re-sighting information may help Red Knots to survive. I once photographed and reported a banded Red Knot and later found out that the bird was over 12 years old, a remarkable find.

The red knot in the image above was banded on Anna Maria Island in Florida on 2/28/09, my resighting was on 3/20/09 about an hour north of where it had been originally banded.

Banded Roseate Spoonbill

Banded Roseate Spoonbill
D200, f6.3, 1/800, ISO 200, 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light

This Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) was photographed at a wetlands near where I lived in Florida. The bird was banded on Pigeon Key just north of Marathon Florida which is on the way to Key West. My resighting was about 250 miles north and west of where the bird was banded as a chick on 12/23/05. It was an interesting resighting according to the local Audubon Chapter, I reported the bird to them because I had read where they were specifically interested in banded Spoonbill resightings at the time.

Banded Piping Plover

Banded Piping Plover
D200, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 200, 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light

I reported my resighting of the Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) in the image above but seem to have lost the information on this bird that was sent back to me during my move from Florida to Utah. It is not uncommon to see banded Piping Plovers along the coast of Florida. There are several research projects going on up North to help understand this imperiled species better.

Yes, I used to complain about the “jewelry” I would see when I photographed birds but now I am more than willing to do my part and send in my resightings for these research studies.

Reporting Encounter of Marked Bird - General

Shorebird Reporting

Mia