| Zusammenfassung: | Staging areas along the coasts provide reliable food resources, and shorebirds may use the same stopover locations every year. However, shorebirds use sites opportunistically in the interior of North America because of the transient nature of many habitats. Little is known, however, about the use of wetlands by migrating shorebirds in many areas of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV), including Kentucky. During 2004 and 2005, we examined the phenology of migration by shorebirds using stopover habitats in Kentucky. From March to October, we surveyed shorebirds in each moist soil unit as well as at other natural and man-made wetlands at each wildlife management area. Species abundance was recorded a minimum of once every 10-day period. We observed 25 species and 12,307 individual shorebirds during our study, with Charadrius vociferous (Killdeer; n = 4134), Calidris melanotos (Pectoral Sandpiper; ç = 2912), Calidris minutilla (Least Sandpiper; ç = 1138), Tringa melanoleuca (Gmelin) (Greater Yellowlegs; n = 942), and Tringa flavipes (Lesser Yellowlegs; n = 911) being most abundant. We observed nearly 75% more shorebirds during fall migration than during spring migration, possibly because less suitable habitat is available in the fall and shorebirds concentrate in those areas. In addition, shorebird migration extended over a longer period in the fall than in the spring, a pattern that likely results because adults migrate earlier in the fall and juveniles migrate later. Our results provide additional evidence that the MAV provides important stopover habitat for many species of shorebirds during both spring and fall migration.
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