Feeding Ecology of Arctic-Nesting Sandpipers During Spring Migration Through the Prairie Pothole Region

Authors

Jan Eldridge, USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Gary Krapu, USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research CenterFollow
Douglas Johnson, USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research CenterFollow

Date of this Version

2009

Comments

Published in JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT 73(2):248–252; 2009.

Abstract

We evaluated food habits of 4 species of spring-migrant calidrid sandpipers in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North Dakota. Sandpipers foraged in several wetland classes and fed primarily on aquatic dipterans, mostly larvae, and the midge family Chironomidae was the primary food eaten. Larger sandpiper species foraged in deeper water and took larger larvae than did smaller sandpipers. The diverse wetland habitats that migrant shorebirds use in the PPR suggest a landscape-level approach be applied to wetland conservation efforts. We recommend that managers use livestock grazing and other tools, where applicable, to keep shallow, freshwater wetlands from becoming choked with emergent vegetation limiting chironomid production and preventing shorebird use.