Nuggets

I lovingly title this one "nuggets" for all of the small fluff balls on sticks running around the tundra.  It has reached the time of the season when the eggs are hatching and the young leave the nest and begin to grow and develop their wings for their migrations.  All of the shorebirds, as precocial birds, do not develop in the nest as songbirds do and hence after they hatch they are generally able to leave the nest within a couple of days.  That also means their incubation length is longer, averaging 20-24 days for most shorebirds.

Semipalmated Sandpiper nugget.
Since they essentially have feet the size of the adults,
I also call them fluff balls on sticks. 

Our plover nests were approaching their hatching days just a few days ago, so we went to check them for signs of hatching. All four of our nests on one of our rehabbed pads had star cracks and pips. These are the signs we look for to tell if the eggs are close to hatching. When the chick is ready to hatch it uses its beak and a modified structure on it, called an egg tooth, to crack open the shell. On the outside, this is evidenced by the star cracks that radiate out from a central point and pips, which are those central parts that are often indented and beginning to break away. On the way we found an American Golden-Plover nest. One of the eggs had a pip in it, so we made a note to also check this nest the next time we were out.

American Golden-Plover nest
Notice the pip in the bottom right egg (might have to zoom in)

We went back today, and they have begun to hatch! Two Golden-Plovers have hatched, and boy are they cute. Golden nuggets indeed!

Golden Nuggets! The egg on the right has a hole,
so those two are also on their way to hatching. 

You can see the hole better in this picture. 

Look at those toes! Like a little dinosaur! 

The nest that I found, that is not on the pad itself but another nearby that will be rehabbed this year (see previous post "Cool Down"), has hatched. All four Semi Plover nuggets were out and super cute. The other nests still have a day or two so we will be checking them again.

These guys are like half the size of those Goldens.

Cuddling the nugget! 

Other cute baby animals = foxes! When we are driving to our pads, we routinely pass a spot on the Kuparuk river with a fox den. It has been very nice to see the fox pups out and about most of the days we go by and here are some pictures of them.

Playing!

They're just like puppies!
I mean they are canids so that makes sense. 

Buff-breasted Sandpipers are one of my favorite sandpipers ever.  They are pretty distinct with their "buffy" chest and bright orange or yellow legs.  The underwings are white and stand out quite a bit as well.  They have a mating system called a lek.  The males gather in groups and display for females using those bright underwings.  It is quite a site to see, but sadly I only got to see one male display earlier in the season.  Anyway, today on our trek out to one of the long-term monitoring plots, Erica found a Buff-breasted nest!  Surprisingly, the female does not make a sound nor does it do the typical "broken-wing" behavior.  She was completely silent, but stuck close to the nest when we were checking it out.  They might be hatching in the next few days, so I am very excited to possibly see them.

Buff-breasted nest.
Eggs are quite green like the Stilt Sandpiper eggs.