Red Knot in St. Louis County
2013-09-03

'Casual' in Minnesota

Juvenile Red Knot (Calidris canutus) at Park Point Recreation Area, Duluth, 3 September 2013. The late afternoon sun produced warmer than normal tones to its overall grayish plumage. Aged by the neatly scalloped appearance of its upperparts, with pale fringing and dark subterminal lines on its scapulars, upper wing-coverts, and tertials. Juveniles normally fly non-stop from their breeding grounds in the Canadian Nearctic (subsp. rufa) to stopover sites in New England and Delaware Bay, where they replenish their fat reserves for the long flight to wintering areas as far south as Argentina. Juveniles are therefore particularly rare inland, though the poorly-understood fall migration of birds breeding on Wrangel Is. (Russia) and northwest Alaska (subsp. roselaaria) may account for some inland birds as they make their journey to the southern coasts of the United States and tropical coasts of South America north of the equator (O'Brien, M., R. Crossley, and K. Karlson. 2006. The Shorebird Guide. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston and New York).

Peder H. Svingen