Birding

High Arctic shorebirds on the move

August 24, 2025 by Clive Finlayson No Comments

Only a few weeks ago the nidifugous chicks of many shorebird species had hatched into the world of the tundra. It is quite remarkable how a short time later they and their parents would be moving into an entirely different world, one dominated by tides and mud. Not just that, they would be migrating south, well away from their High Arctic homes into unknown worlds that would take them far, in some cases to the other end of the planet.

Newly hatched Golden Plover

At the moment all the hype in my part of the world is about raptors and storks (see my previous posts), understandably as they perform spectacles in numbers that defy belief. Yet, quietly and imperceptibly, another even more spectacular migration is also taking place nearby.

Bar-tailed Godwit

I’m referring to the migration of shorebirds from the High Arctic, many of which are now stopping to feed, moult, or fatten up for another lap of their migration. Some will stay with us but others will continue the journey towards the African Atlantic coasts, some all the way down to the Cape itself. Along other routes, such as along the Pacific, some species, most notably Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica) will travel in lengthy non-stop flights all the way from the Arctic to New Zealand. No Black Kite (Milvus migrans) or even Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorus) is capable of such feats.

Greenshank
Grey Plover

Sanderling
Turnstone

It’s a good time to see some of these High Arctic shorebirds as some are still in breeding plumage. It won’t be long before they start their post-breeding moult into duller plumages. Others, such as Greenshanks (Tringa nebularia) are in moult, actively doing so during migration stop overs.

Greenshank in moult

The main elements now passing through are the birds that bred in the High Arctic. They are the first to go to avoid the rapidly incoming autumn: Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola), Sanderling (Calidris alba), Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) and, of course, Bar-tailed Gowit.

Kentish Plover with Sanderling and Greenshank in background

During their stop overs they meet local resident shorebirds, down here mainly Kentish Plovers (Charadrius alexandrinus). In all, quite an amazing transformation, metamorphosis if you like, that these birds undertake twice a year, from tundra to mud flat, from High Arctic to the temperate, tropical and equatorial regions of the planet. If ever there was a case to be made for the international protection of migratory bird species and populations, this is it.

Grey Plover


Written by Clive Finlayson
Growing up in Gibraltar, it is impossible not to notice large birds of prey, in the thousands, overhead. That, and his father’s influence, got Clive hooked on birds from a very young age. His passion for birds took him eventually to the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at Oxford University where he read for a DPhil, working with swifts and pallid swifts. Publishing papers, articles and books on birds aside, Clive is also a keen bird photographer. He started as a poor student with an old Zenit camera and a 400 mm lens; nowadays he works with a Nikon mirrorless system. Although his back garden is Gibraltar and the Strait of Gibraltar, Clive has an intimate knowledge of Iberian birds but his work also takes him much further afield, from Canada to Japan to Australia. He is Director of the Gibraltar National Museum. Clive's beat is "Avian Survivors", the title of one of his books in which he describes the birds of the Palaearctic as survivors that pulled through a number of ice ages to reach us today.