Things are getting pretty quiet around here as birds make their way back south. We are in the middle of the fall migration and mornings are much quieter of late. This week I thought I would share some images of one of the more common birds we see around Yellowknife in the spring and summer, the lesser yellowlegs.
This bird is one of the first shorebirds we see and hear in the spring. They are plentiful around the edges of the many small lakes around town and are one of the birds more tolerant of photographers despite the amount of noise they make when defending their eggs and chicks. Biologist William Rowan once noted, “they will be perched there as though the safety of the entire universe depended on the amount of noise they made.”
Both the male and female care for the young but the female tends to leave the breeding area before the chicks can fly leaving the male to defend the young until fledging.
Although they are common around Yellowknife during the breeding season, lesser yellowlegs populations are declining because of disappearing wetland habitats. This is the second time this species has faced a significant threat from human activity. In the early 20th century commercial hunting was banned which allowed lesser yellowlegs populations to recover. Unfortunately, the disappearance of their habitat has placed them on Audubon’s Yellow Watch List for species with declining populations.
If you would like to learn more about the watchlist categories and classification process you can visit Partners in Flight here: https://partnersinflight.org/watch-list-categories/
As you know, I love learning random facts about bird species and the lesser yellowlegs is no exception. The most interesting thing I learned about Lesser yellowlegs is that Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs are not each other’s closest relatives. Lesser Yellowlegs are actually more closely related to the much larger Willet.
The oldest recorded Lesser Yellowlegs was at least 4 years, 11 months old when it was found in South Dakota in 1965. It had been banded in the Lesser Antilles in 1960.
That’s all for this week. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to stop by. We’ll be back on track next week for another Sunday edition. See you then!