This publish is about Dunlins, as seen in and round Shanghai within the autumn of 2024 – the same old mixture of photographs and a few info which I steadfastly refuse to name “enjoyable info”. Whereas Dunlins are presumably not a species that will get the heartbeat of birders racing, I had two motivations to work on this publish. One was that I took some respectable photographs of Dunlins not too long ago – you will discover them sprinkled all through this publish (“some sprinkle stuff”, JD Vance shopping for donuts). The opposite was a paper I encountered with the intriguing title “Particular person Associations in a Wintering Shorebird Inhabitants: Do Dunlin Have Pals?”
Pals?
The very first thing I realized from that paper – which I checked individually – is that the plural of Dunlin is certainly both Dunlin or Dunlins – each appear to be appropriate. Fascinating, isn’t it not?
However sure, the query raised within the paper is intriguing. So, the researchers radio-marked Dunlins wintering at Humboldt Bay, California and checked how incessantly two Dunlins roosted collectively or not less than have been a part of the identical flock. The end result, in layman’s phrases, sadly, is that Dunlins don’t have buddies. Which scientifically sounds as follows: “Our findings are in keeping with predictions for a extremely cellular, typically nonterritorial, long-distance migrant for which secure social associations don’t have any clear profit.”
(This jogs my memory of how as soon as when doing a postdoc at Berkeley, I discussed taking a bus dwelling after taking part in soccer with some buddies, one supplied to drive me dwelling, explaining “In case you take a bus, it means you haven’t any buddies”).
Again to our Dunlins, which regardless of not having buddies hardly ever take buses. Some extra semi-scientific info, sadly not all as relatable because the above.
One would suppose that when feeding, Dunlins want these spots with the best density of prey. Certainly, that is the case for these people feeding by sight – however that’s solely a minority. Many of the Dunlins examined in a paper fed utilizing contact to find prey within the softest mud. As a consequence, they like areas with softer mud, which is extra simply penetrated by their invoice, making the prey simpler to catch. So, “wetter is healthier” appears to be their rule of thumb when trying to find meals. A bit like trying to find your misplaced keys the place the sunshine is nice, not the place you seemingly misplaced them.
One other paper – by the way researched at Chongming, Dongtan, additionally a part of Shanghai – ranked broader areas by Dunlin choice. Tidal mudflats are finest adopted by aquaculture ponds, whereas agricultural croplands get a really low score by Dunlin influencers.
Worse than agricultural croplands are agricultural croplands containing wheat seeds handled with strychnine. 36 Dunlins died of strychnine poisoning in Yolo County, California in 1990 (supply).
It appears the identify Dunlin itself is a little bit of an insult. In accordance with Allaboutbirds, “The identify Dunlin comes from Dunling, the earliest recognized English identify of the species, which dates again not less than so far as 1531. Dunling is a compound of the English phrase dun (which means grey-brown) and the diminutive -ling. So the identify Dunlin basically means ‘little brown job’.”
Or to place it in a really lame joke: “Who put the Duh in Dunlin?”
Regardless of this underappreciation, many Dunlins are nonetheless very able to having fun with their lives, as the subsequent picture reveals (I’m penning this with the data that I should search for the spelling of the phrase “anthropomorphizing” proper afterward).
Lastly, researchers filmed flying flocks of Dunlins and recognized two primary maneuvers. One is a course-change motion by which your complete flock alters its course, and the opposite a rotation motion by which particular person birds rotate on their axes with out essentially altering route. Each could make a flock’s total look shift abruptly from mild to darkish because the birds orient completely different elements of their plumage towards the observer.
And the way lengthy does this take? On common, 196 milliseconds. With such a quick life-style, it’s not shocking they don’t have buddies.
